Boswells of Oxford was the largest independent family-run department store in Oxford, England. [1] The store first traded in 1738 [2] and was the second oldest family-owned department store in the world. It closed in 2020. [3] [4] The company did not use an apostrophe in its name, although others sometimes mistakenly do so.
Founded by Francis Boswell, the store was originally located at 50 Cornmarket Street. [5] Boswells started up in business manufacturing and selling luggage and trunks, and it is believed their wares were taken on Captain Cook's trip to explore the Southern Hemisphere.
The business remained in the Boswell family until 1890, when there was no one left for direct succession. The ownership then passed to Arthur Pearson, the owner of the Oxford Drug Company. Ownership of both Boswells and the Oxford Drug Company remained in the Pearson family and, unusually for a department store, Boswells contained a pharmacy. The store building, Boswell House, with the address 1–4 Broad Street, was constructed in 1929, with its main entrance opposite Balliol College and close to the spot (marked with a cross in the middle of the road) where the Oxford Martyrs were burnt at the stake in the 16th century; the building incorporated the Martyrs' Bastion from the former city wall. [5] It replaced small shops on the site of Treadwell Passage, an alley which had been notorious in the 19th century. [6] In 1958 it was joined to the Oxford Drug Company building at the north end of Cornmarket Street, providing a side entrance to the department store. [5]
The store was traditional in style and a local shopping landmark, particularly for toys, kitchenware, and luggage, continuing the tradition from 1738. In 2014, Boswells launched an e-commerce website to replace a purely marketing website and sold products from all its departments online.[ citation needed ] In 2015, the store expanded upstairs to create a new tearoom and customer toilets, and in 2018 added a takeaway cafe. The store departments were:[ citation needed ]
In 2020, there was a closing down sale after 282 years of trading. [7] The COVID-19 pandemic brought forward the closure of the store. [8] The store closed due to the crisis, apart from the pharmacy, which closed on 11 April 2020.
The building has been converted to a luxury hotel, The Store Oxford, which opened in 2024. [6]
Oxford is a city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. Founded in the 8th century, it was granted city status in 1542. The city is located at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Cherwell. It had a population of 162,100 at the 2021 census. It is 56 miles (90 km) north-west of London, 64 miles (103 km) south-east of Birmingham and 61 miles (98 km) north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, information technology and science.
Cornmarket Street is a major shopping street and pedestrian precinct in Oxford, England that runs north to south between Magdalen Street and Carfax Tower.
Allders was an independent department store operating in the United Kingdom.
Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acquired by Marshall Field & Company in 1929. By 1980, the Frederick & Nelson chain had expanded to 10 stores in two states. The company went out of business in 1992. Its former Seattle flagship store building is now occupied by the flagship Nordstrom store.
The Meier & Frank Building is a fifteen-story, glazed terra cotta building located in downtown Portland, Oregon, across from the northeast corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. The building is the former flagship store and headquarters building for the Meier & Frank department store chain, which was taken over by Macy's in 2006. In 2006–2007, the building's lower five floors were remodeled as a Macy's, while the upper eleven floors were renovated in 2008 into a luxury hotel known as The Nines. Macy's closed in April 2017 and the lower levels were rebuilt as office space.
H & J Smith Holdings Ltd, branded as H & J Smith was a company which operated in the lower South Island of New Zealand. The company was founded in 1900 and closed in 2023. It operates a network of franchises. The company previously operated department stores around the South Island with the flagship store in Invercargill.
Broad Street is a wide street in central Oxford, England, just north of the former city wall. The street is known for its bookshops, including the original Blackwell's bookshop at number 50, located here due to the University of Oxford. Among residents, the street is traditionally known as The Broad.
The Randolph Hotel, also known as The Randolph Hotel by Graduate Hotels, is a 5 star hotel in Oxford, England, on the south side of Beaumont Street, at the corner with Magdalen Street, opposite the Ashmolean Museum and close to the Oxford Playhouse. The hotel building is in the Victorian Gothic style.
The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903. They quickly gained enormous popularity, and are the most famous of the many Glasgow tearooms that opened in the late 19th and early 20th century. The building was fully restored, largely to Mackintosh's original designs, between 2014 and 2018. It was re-opened as working tearooms in July 2018 and trades under the name "Mackintosh at The Willow". This follows a trademark dispute with the former operator of The Willow Tearooms which was resolved in 2017. That name is now used at tearoom premises in Buchanan Street and was additionally used at the Watt Brothers Department Store in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow between 2016 and its closure in 2019.
Shepherd & Woodward are a traditional clothing outfitters in High Street, Oxford, England. In particular, they provide academic gowns and other clothing for the University of Oxford. The shop's origins date back to 1845.
Catherine Cranston, widely known as Kate Cranston or Miss Cranston, was a leading figure in the development of tea rooms. She is nowadays chiefly remembered as a major patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald, in Glasgow, Scotland. The name of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms lives on in reminiscences of Glasgow in its heyday.
Magdalen Street is a short shopping street in central Oxford, England, just north of the original north gate in the city walls. Traditionally, the name of the street is pronounced and not as the name of the Magdalen College, which is always.
The Clarendon Centre is a shopping centre in central Oxford, England, opened in 1984. The centre faces Cornmarket Street, and has other entrances onto Queen Street and Shoe Lane. The fascia onto Cornmarket Street is that of the Woolworths store which had, in a decision later criticised, replaced the Georgian Clarendon Hotel; it was discovered during demolition that medieval construction had been present within the hotel. The shopping centre was expanded in 2012–14. Major tenants include TK Maxx, H&M and Gap Outlet.
Market Street is a street in central Oxford, England, running east to west.
The H. & S. Pogue Company was a Cincinnati, Ohio based department store chain founded by two brothers, Henry and Samuel Pogue. They came from County Cavan, Northern Ireland, to Cincinnati and worked in their uncle's dry goods store. They later were able to buy him out and H. & S. Pogue Dry Goods Company was established in 1863 at 111 West Fifth Street. Brothers Thomas, Joseph, and William Pogue would eventually join the enterprise.
The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop/Museum is a historic apothecary's shop in Alexandria, Virginia, that has been preserved as a museum. During its working life, it was owned by generations of a Quaker family. Eventually, a dramatic decline in sales during the Great Depression forced the shop to close its doors. Almost immediately, in 1939, it was reopened as a museum. Today, most of the artifacts inside the shop are authentic and date to its closing. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.
Standard Drug Company was a drugstore chain based in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded in 1919 by Samuel and Leo Rosenthal, who were graduates of the MCV School of Pharmacy. The first store opened on Main Street in Downtown Richmond as a pharmacy only. In 1921 the Rosenthals acquired a large building at the corner of First and Broad streets that became the anchor store to the first discount drug chain in America. It thrived for decades, expanding throughout Virginia into Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs.
J Ballantyne and Company Ltd, trading as Ballantynes is a Christchurch, New Zealand-based department store operator. Established in 1854, it is New Zealand's oldest department store. Ballantynes is also a member of the Intercontinental Group of Department Stores. Alongside their flagship store in Christchurch Central City, stores also operate in Timaru and Invercargill.
The Woodlark Building is a historic commercial building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The nine-story building was designed by Doyle, Patterson & Beach, and constructed in 1911–12. It has been described as "one of Portland's earliest commercial skyscrapers". From its completion until 1924, it was the headquarters of two jointly owned and very similarly named pharmaceutical companies based in Portland, the retail Woodard, Clarke & Company, and the wholesale Clarke-Woodward Company. It was converted into an office building in 1924. The retail space on the ground floor, mezzanine and basement has held a variety of businesses, in succession over the building's history, among the longest-lasting ones being a drugstore (1912–1927), a Sherman Clay piano and music store (1930–1974), and an independent shoe store (2000–2016).
Palisade Hotel is a heritage-listed pub and hotel located at 35–37 Bettington Street, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point of New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to Barangaroo Reserve. Administratively, the hotel is in the City of Sydney local government area. It was designed by H. D. Walsh and built in 1915–16. It is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.