Oxford's pedestrianised retail spine, running north from Carfax to St Mary Magdalen church.
Cornmarket Street is Oxford's main shopping spine, running north between Carfax Tower and Magdalen Street. It was semi-pedestrianised in 1999, with cycling permitted only between 6pm and 10am — a small detail that shapes the rhythm of the street. As its name suggests, it was historically the site of Oxford's corn market, and earlier still the road out through the medieval north gate of the city wall.
The high-street retail today is, frankly, ordinary. The history isn't. On the corner of Ship Street, the timber-framed range at 26-28 Cornmarket is the surviving half of an inn completed around 1386 — known as the New Inn, today owned by Jesus College and restored in 1983. Northwards, the Saxon tower of St Michael at the North Gate dates from about 1000-1050 and is the oldest building in Oxford; the church takes its name from the medieval city gate that once spanned the street. Beside the church stood the Bocardo Prison, where the Oxford Martyrs were held in 1555-56 before being walked round the corner to be burnt at the stake on what is now Broad Street. Halfway down the west side, the Clarendon Shopping Centre occupies the site of the former Clarendon Hotel — once the Star Inn, with a 12th-century Norman vaulted cellar — which Woolworths demolished in 1954-55 over the protests of the planner Thomas Sharp; the present building is by William Holford, 1956-57.
Cornmarket meets the High Street, Queen Street and St Aldate's at Carfax, the historic crossing point at the centre of the city. Carfax Tower, all that remains of the medieval St Martin's Church, anchors the southern end.
Historical names: Northgate Street
Sources: Wikipedia: Cornmarket Street · Wikidata: Cornmarket Street (Q5171875) · OpenStreetMap: Cornmarket Street
