TWO Oxford landmarks have been named among the contenders for a pair of nationwide awards.

The Academy of Urbanism, a group aimed at promoting public spaces, has put forward the High Street for The Great Street of the Year Award and Oxford Castle for its Great Place of the Year Award.

The city's entries will be competing against nine other entries in each category.

The High will be face streets including Bath's Royal Crescent and Portobello Road, London, while the castle has competition from places such as Trafalgar Square, London, and Exchange Square, Man- chester.

Nick Losito, the owner of Pens Plus, has been trading in the High Street for nine years.

He said: "It is a lovely street at the heart of Oxford.

"With the shops and the colleges, it really is a nice street. The shops are very specialist and we are a bit out of the way of the main shopping streets."

Graham Jones, the chairman of the High Street Businesses' Association, said: "I think the first thing is the architecture.

"There are many Grade I listed buildings and a great number of Grade II ones. There is the famous curve, where people can appreciate the buildings and it has a great mixture of independent shops, restaurants and the colleges.

"We are not so happy about the street clutter and bus gate, and we hope the High Street can be further improved."

Acclaimed historian Nikolaus Pevsner, who compiled a county-by-county guide to English buildings, described the High Street as "one of the world's greatest streets".

"It has everything," he wrote, "It's on a slight curve so the vistas always change."

The original Oxford Castle dates back to Norman times and the site later housed Oxford Prison before its recent redevelopment as a leisure complex and visitor attraction.

John Thompson, chairman of the academy, said: "Everyone can recognise a great place, but it is harder to pinpoint what it is about our beautiful cities, towns, streets and places that makes us respond to them positively.

"The Academy is developing ways of measuring what makes a great place great, so we can learn from them in the future.

"We think Oxford High Street and Oxford Castle are just such great places."

The shortlists will be reduced to three before the winner of each award is crowned in Liverpool in November.