The Covered Market: Oxford Travel Guide (4.5★)

A market older than most of the colleges’ lawns

The Covered Market has traded since the 1770s. It opened in 1774 to clear the butchers’ stalls off Oxford’s streets. The design came from John Gwynn, the architect who also designed Magdalen Bridge. It is still a working market, set out as a grid of narrow avenues under a long pitched roof.

Step in from the High Street and the noise of buses drops away. You’ll see shopfronts with painted signs, crates of produce out front and meat on display in the butchers’ windows. Cafés mix with grocers, florists, clothing boutiques and gift shops. Most units are small, so the people serving you are usually standing just across the counter.

Finding the four doors

The market has several entrances, and they matter because the place is a maze. Coming from Carfax Tower, use the High Street arches. From Cornmarket, cut down Market Street to the address, Market St, OX1 3DZ.

• From Oxford railway station: about 15 minutes on foot, east along Park End Street and George Street.
• From Gloucester Green coach station: under 10 minutes south via Cornmarket.
• By car: city-centre parking is tight. The Park & Ride buses into the centre stop within a short walk.

Jesus College and Turl Street sit just north. The Radcliffe Camera is five minutes east, so it slots into a walking loop of the old centre.

What to eat between the stalls

Food is the main reason people come. A few names keep coming up:

• Ben’s Cookies: the chain started in this market, and the cookies are sold warm by weight.
• Brown’s Café: an old-school café serving fry-ups, pies and mugs of tea.
• The Cake Shop: its window is full of novelty celebration cakes, and people stop to look whether they’re buying or not.
• The butchers: this is still the best place in central Oxford to buy proper meat and game. Some counters also sell ready-to-eat sausage rolls and pies.

Plenty of visitors graze instead of sitting down for a meal. Buy coffee at one counter and a pastry at the next, then do a second lap. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings the market stays open until 10pm, and the food and drink units do most of the late trade.

Shopping the avenues the Oxford way

At the moment the doors open at 8am Monday to Saturday and at 10am on Sunday. Closing is 5:30pm Monday to Wednesday and 5pm on Sunday. Thursday to Saturday it stays open until 10pm. Each trader keeps their own hours inside those times, so check before making a special trip for one shop.

This is a very popular market, so plan around the crowds. On weekdays it’s calmest from 8am to 10am and again from 5pm to 6pm. Monday to Wednesday that second window is short, because the market shuts at 5:30pm.

Weekends are harder. Try not to arrive between 11am and 6pm, when the avenues fill shoulder to shoulder. On Saturday the quiet slots are 8am–11am and 9pm–10pm. On Sunday the quiet window starts when the doors open at 10am.

• Paying: most counters take contactless, but a few small traders may ask for a minimum card spend.
• Queues: these form at the counter, not along the avenue. Step to one side so people can get past.
• Butchers: ask the staff what’s good this week. They expect to be asked, and they will cut to order.
• Prices: look at the tickets on each counter or the shop’s own board. They vary a lot from stall to stall.

How long to give it

Allow 45 minutes to an hour for a proper wander, a coffee and a snack. Food shoppers can easily spend longer at the butchers and grocers. The market is a short walk from a college visit or a climb up Carfax Tower, which makes it a natural place to break up a morning.

When the shutters come down

On the early-closing days the market goes quiet straight after 5:30pm. The surrounding streets carry on. The pubs and restaurants on the High Street and Turl Street are a couple of minutes away. On a late-opening night you can eat in the market first, then walk to Radcliffe Square to see the domed Camera after dark.