A bar too far?

The year is 1996 and you take a stroll into Oxford city centre. You pick up a bottle of bubbly at the Grape Ideas wine warehouse, in Hythe Bridge Street, take a look at a particularly fetching jacket at LA Bean vintage clothing in George Street, and order some new curtains at nearby Belfast Linen.

In High Street, you visit the English Teddy Bear Shop, view a Fender Stratocaster at the Russell Acott music store and then check the damage it would inflict on your bank account at Barclay's before heading home.

Visit exactly the same places today and expect your memories to be a little more blurred.

You could have a beer at the Jongleurs comedy club, try a whisky at Yates's Wine Lodge and down a vodka at the Wig and Pen pub. A stagger to High Street and you could try a cocktail at the Grand Cafe. Russell Acott's still has the Fender guitar, but national wine bar chain All Bar One expects to take over the 50-year-old shop soon. Developers Mogford, which own The Old Parsonage Hotel and Gees restaurant in Oxford, have won planning permission to transform the former Barclay's bank into a hotel - so at least you can sleep off your hangover after propping up the bar.

It can be of little surprise that traditionalists are concerned at the changing face of Oxford city centre.

The number of bars and restaurants in Oxford has grown rapidly in recent years - there are now 400 - and police estimate that up to 5,000 people descend on the city centre every Saturday night.

George Street has been transformed from a run down shopping area to the city's focus for meeting and eating. Now developers are looking to other areas in which latch on to the boom.

Next month, a Chicago Rock Cafe - boasting 'a bit of America imported to Oxford' - opens on the site of former probation service offices, in Park End Street. There also are plans for a new restaurant and private members club across the road.

In St Ebbe's, the Harry Ramsden's fish and chips restaurant is set to be taken over by a Slug and Lettuce pub. In High Street, upmarket bar the Grand Cafe - on the site of the former Frank Cooper's Jam Shop and English Teddy Bear shop - opened in January. The All Bar One and £2m Mogford group hotel, both in listed buildings, are expected to open next year.

"There is a leisure boom going on," said Judy Chipchase, principal planner for Oxford City Council. "The increasing number of applications for bars and restaurants poses a problem because we have got a policy that was not derived at a time of leisure boom. We have no guidance from the Government on this at all."

She added: "The policy has kept shopping in central shopping areas but in secondary shopping areas we have criteria which allows them to be used for bars and restaurants. It is difficult to resist applications in many of these areas."

But is an abundance of bars and restaurants necessarily a bad thing?

Clinton Pugh, owner of the Grand Cafe, and two other restaurants in Oxford, believes market forces should be allowed to run their course - providing there are strict controls on the design of pubs and restaurants. He said: "The more the merrier. The catering industry is changing and new caterers will wipe out those who are not progressive.

"The pressures of life mean that people want to go out more and more. Oxford is also supposed to be a 24-hour city and one of the country's major tourist centres. We have a long way to go before the demand the cafes and bars is met and when there is no need for more they will not survive."

He added: "What we do need are strict controls to ensure that developers are sensitive to the environment and protect the city's heritage. What has been allowed to happen in George Street in terms of design is disgraceful. It is like a war zone."

Mr Pugh also blamed the closure of smaller, traditional shops in the city centre on out-of-town developments drawing shoppers away.

He said: "Councillors can't complain when it is their own policies that have created this."

Graham Ansell, owner of the Russell Acott music shop, added: "We are considering moving out of town because it is so difficult for people to come into town these days."

CLUBLAND FEARS ARE UNLIKELY

Cllr Maureen Christian, city planning chairman of the city council's planning committee, said The High is unlikely to see development on a similar scale to George Street.

She said: "Park End Street has become clubby but I would hope we would be able to resist that in The High. MIt has a mixture of uses and many of the shops are very small. There would be more individual reasons why an application to turn a shop into a pub would be refused, but it depends on the pressure."

She added: "Most councillors think we have too many bars and restaurants but the reply we get is that when people want to go out on a Saturday night they still have to queue.

"It is just that people are attracted to the city because it is a very lively place at night, but we have got to keep it lively during the day as well."

A TIGHT SHIP IS THE KEY

As long as budding bar owners prove they will run a tight ship, there is little to stop them receiving a drinks licence, says the chairman of Oxford's licensing panel.

Terry Gardener, who has chaired licensing hearings at Oxford magistrates court for the past three years, said: "The character of Oxford is changing, but the world is changing. I do not like to see some of the things that are happening in Oxford but you have to move with the times.

"If there are no objections and the licensee is a fit and capable person, then there is little we can do but grant a licence. I do not see anything wrong in the increase in licensed outlets as long as they are properly run."

He added: "Someone may ask why there is a need for a new licence in George Street, but I hear there are people queuing to get in many of the bars and restaurants.

"The police and I are in almost constant contact and they give their concerns. We can also revoke licences if a place is badly run."

Despite the growing number of bars and restaurants, the vast majority of premises are still shops.

In the main shopping area, including Cornmarket Street and Queen Street, less than seven per cent of space is taken up by A3 uses, under which bars and restaurants fall. In the 'secondary' shopping area, which includes George Street, the figure is just under 15 per cent.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.