DAY by day the opening of the new £440m Westgate Centre in Oxford is coming closer for shoppers.

Contractors from Laing O'Rourke have started work on three new buildings on the site of the old multi-storey car park off Oxpens Road.

This comes after developers entered the main construction phase, just over a year after starting the scheme in February 2015.

From Queen Street, shoppers can see work progressing well on the Reef Estates scheme to build a new Sainsbury's in St Aldate's.

The Westgate revamp so far has seen a large excavation completed and a new underground car park built, with six cranes now in use, and is expected to create 1,000 jobs.

Oxford Mail:

Sara Fuge, development manager for the Westgate Oxford Alliance said: "The view from Thames Street shows you right into the heart of the new Westgate development as it rises from the ground.

"It’s exciting you can now start to see the flagship John Lewis store taking shape."

Oxford Civic Society chairman Peter Thompson said: "The Westgate is a massive scheme and we are generally pretty happy with how the design has turned out, because they've had some of the world's best architects in to do it."

Oxford Mail:

The new centre, including John Lewis, is due to reopen in October 2017 and will cover 800,000sq ft and include more than 100 new stores, 25 restaurants and cafes, a boutique cinema, rooftop terrace and new public squares.