Boswells of Oxford
Boswells of Oxford was the largest independent family-run department store in Oxford, England.[1] The store closed in 2020.[2][3]
The store first traded in 1738,
The store was traditional in style and a local shopping landmark, particularly for toys, kitchenware, and luggage, continuing the tradition from 1738. It retained a smaller side entrance at the north end of Cornmarket Street, which was originally the Oxford Drug Company building. Its address is now 1–4 Broad Street.[5] The company did not use an apostrophe in its name, although others sometimes mistakenly do so.
In 2014, the store launched an e-commerce website to replace a purely marketing website and sold products from all its departments online.[citation needed] In 2015, Boswells expanded upstairs to create a new tearoom and customer toilets, and added a takeaway cafe in 2018. The store departments were:[citation needed]
- Basement – Cookshop and Kitchen Electricals, Hardware, Household Essentials, Lighting, Small Electricals, Tableware
- Ground Floor – Cosmetics, Accessories, Umbrellas and Bags, Gifts, Luggage, Pharmacy, Tourism, Broad Street Cafe
- First Floor – 1738 Tearoom, Toys and Games
- Second Floor – Bedding and Bathrooms, Customer Toilets, Haberdashery, Parcel Collection point
In 2020, there was a
The building has been converted to a luxury hotel, The Store Oxford, which will open in early 2024.[8]
References
- ^ "Boswells of Oxford Limited Company Profile". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ^ Ffrench, Andrew. "Boswells in Oxford set to close next year". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ "Oxford's oldest department store Boswells set to close". BBC News. UK: BBC. 27 November 2019.
- ISBN 0-333-39917-X.
- ^ a b "Nos. 1–3: Boswells of Oxford". Oxford History. Oxford, UK. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ Ffrench, Andrew (29 February 2020). "Everything must go now at Boswells in closing down sale". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
- Oxford Times. p. 5.
- ^ https://www.hospitalitynet.org/announcement/41010273.html
Bibliography
- Bax, Andrew, ed. (2019). The Boswells Connection: Stories linked to Oxford's oldest store. Bombus Books. ISBN 978-178456-642-5.
External links
- The Store Oxford Hotel official website
- Boswells website on Archive.org
- Boswells of Oxford Limited information from Google Finance
- Touch Oxford information