Here we feature photos from the Oxford archive of shops across the city we have loved and lost over the years.
It’s not just the big names like Boswells and Woolworths we remember.
Some local independent retailers are also missed too.
READ MORE: Cowley Road beer and vinyl shop is set to close
But perhaps the biggest loss in recent years was family-run department store Boswells, which closed in 2020.
For many families over the years Boswells toy department was the place to go to give their children a treat for Christmas.
But the historic department store in Cornmarket announced it was to close in 2019 and did not reopen after the first coronavirus lockdown
Youngsters would beg their parents to take them to the toy department so they could look at the latest toys and watch the Hornby train sets go around the tracks.
The Oxford branch of Debenhams in Magdalen Street has also closed.
READ MORE: Colourful photos from the early 2000s
Plans to turn the Boswells building on the corner of Cornmarket and Broad Street into a hotel called The Store are now well advanced, and the four-star Reef Group hotel is expected to open next year.
The company claimed that despite being a tourism hotspot, and the site of one of the world’s leading universities, Oxford had a shortage of high-quality hotels with restaurants in the city centre.
Reef said The Store Hotel would provide much-needed new facilities in the city centre to help attract tourists and other visitors in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The plans include a restaurant, a bar and a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the city’s iconic skyline, all open to the public, and some office space.
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About the author
Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here.
He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.
His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning.
You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.
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