Boswells: plans for Oxford Reef hotel with rooftop terrace move forward

Shoppers were shocked in 2019 when the historic Oxford store announced it was to close and it shut early in 2020.

Then earlier this year Debenhams opposite the Boswells building also closed, leaving John Lewis at Westgate as the city's only remaining department store.

Boswells in 2019

Non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on April 12 following the latest lockdown.

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A deal has been agreed between the Boswells building's owner, Oxford City Council, and the Reef Group, the company which wants to use the former store as a luxury hotel. It plans to call it The Store.

Reef have exchanged contracts to acquire the Boswells' freehold and the leasehold from Oxford City Council.

Shannon Hetherington helps to celebrate 275 years of Boswells in Oxford in 2013: Picture: Tony Moore

A council official said earlier transforming the building would help to boost the local economy by providing room for short term stays in the city centre.

Boswells lease on the building had been due to last until June 2058, but Reef has bought those 38 years of the lease from the store, and has also bought the freehold of Boswells' building on Cornmarket Street as well.

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The company has previously said it wanted to retain features of the old store, including the Boswell and Co signs which sit over the entrances to the shop.

It also wants the new interior of the hotel to be inspired by the 1920s Art Deco design of the building.

Earlier this year city councillors gave Reef's proposals planning permission.

The plans for Boswells will see the building filled with 101 hotel rooms, alongside a basement gym, and a restaurant and bar on the ground floor which will be open to walk-in customers, and a new rooftop terrace.

Reef Group director Will Rohleder told a planning committee the new rooftop terrace would ‘allow guests to enjoy Oxford’s landmarks and open up views to the historic skyline, including the Sheldonian Theatre and Northgate tower’.

One councillor praised the plans as ‘exactly the sort of development we need to keep our city centre alive’, as the hotel should boost tourist spending in central Oxford.

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Boswell and Co started trading in Oxford in 1738.

Three-year-old Richard Reynolds going shopping in 1961

The store's management announced its doors would close forever in November 2019 because of adverse trading conditions.

About 70 members of staff were made redundant.