Westgate Oxford facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Westgate Oxford

Inside view of the 2017 Westgate Oxford shopping centre
Location	Oxford, England
Coordinates	51°45′04″N 1°15′40″W / 51.751°N 1.261°W / 51.751; -1.261
Opening date	1972 (original building) Tuesday 24 October 2017 (enlarged building)
Architect	Original building: Douglas Murray Enlarged scheme: BDP, Dixon Jones, Allies & Morrison, Panter Hudspith, Glen Howells Architects
No. of stores and services	125
No. of anchor tenants	1 (John Lewis)
Total retail floor area	800,000 square feet (74,000 m2)
Website	www.westgateoxford.co.uk

Westgate Oxford is a large shopping center in Oxford, England. It used to be called the Westgate Centre and before that, the Westgate Shopping Centre. The center was completely rebuilt and made much bigger between 2016 and 2017.

The first building was put up between 1970 and 1972. It was designed by Douglas Murray. The old center closed in February 2016 for a big makeover. It then reopened on Tuesday, October 24, 2017.

Where is Westgate Oxford?

Westgate is located at the western end of Queen Street in Oxford. It faces a place called Bonn Square. The shopping center is named after an old city gate, the West Gate, which stood nearby until the mid-1600s. This gate had been there since the Saxon times!

The shopping center is surrounded by several streets, including Castle Street and Paradise Street. It's also close to the old Oxford Castle.

Westgate's History

The Westgate Shopping Centre first opened in 1972. The city council of Oxford owned it at the beginning. It had popular stores like Selfridges, Sainsbury's, and C&A. The city's main library also moved into the center. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, opened the library on October 31, 1973. Even Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the center in 1976!

In the 1980s, private companies bought the center. They spent about £3 million to update it in 1986. A few years later, there were ideas to make the center even bigger, but these plans didn't happen then. A large department store, which was first Selfridges and later Allders, closed in 2005. A Primark store took its place in 2006.

Making Westgate Bigger and Better

Plans to rebuild the Westgate area first came out in 2004. Over several years, people discussed and reviewed the plans many times. The final plan was approved in the early 2010s, and permission to build was given in November 2014. Work started in early 2015, and the old center closed in 2016.

A group called the Westgate Oxford Alliance worked together to develop the new center. This group included the Crown Estate and Land Securities Group Plc.

The new center is huge, with almost 800,000 square feet (74,000 m²) of space for shops, restaurants, and fun activities. It includes a new John Lewis store and a dining area on the roof with amazing views of Oxford. There's also a five-screen Curzon Cinema. The city council said that this £500 million project was a big part of making Oxford city center better. It created beautiful new buildings and more than 3,400 new jobs.

The new Westgate Oxford opened its doors on October 24, 2017.

What's New at Westgate (2017)?

The Westgate that opened in 2017 has many cool features:

• Over 100 new shops, including a John Lewis department store and many popular high street stores.
• Lots of cafés and restaurants to grab a bite.
• Fun places like a cinema for entertainment.
• A new walking path along Castle Mill Stream.
• Two new public squares for people to relax.
• New paths for walking through the area.
• A changed bus lane and new spots for taxis.
• Places to park your bicycle.
• A two-story underground car park with 900 to 1100 spaces.
• 59 new one- and two-bedroom flats (apartments).

Things People Talked About

Building and rebuilding Westgate led to some discussions and concerns.

Old Discoveries Underground

When the first center was built in the 1970s, digging for the basements destroyed some very old remains from medieval Oxford.

During the 2015–2017 rebuilding, a group called Oxford Archaeology carefully looked for historical items. They found parts of a medieval friary (a type of monastery) that was there from 1244 to 1538. They discovered stone foundations, wooden items, and even part of an old tiled floor. This tiled floor is now on display inside the new Westgate center! Some of the other finds were shown for a while at the Museum of Oxford.

Design and City Planning

A local group called "Oxford Against Westgate Expansion" was formed to speak out against the plans to make the center bigger. They held public meetings to share their worries. People were concerned about more traffic and the risk of flooding because of the underground car park.

Some people, including the Oxford Civic Society, also had concerns about how the new building looked from certain angles, especially a large wall on Oxpens Road that didn't have many windows.

Changes to Queen Street

Oxfordshire County Council wanted to stop buses from using Queen Street, which is right by Westgate's main entrance. They thought that with so many more people visiting the bigger shopping center, it wouldn't be safe for buses to be there. However, the government minister in charge, Chris Grayling, said no to this idea. He explained that the council didn't show enough proof that it would be unsafe.