Since March 2020, many businesses in the city have been forced to close down, with the city centre hit particularly hard.

A number of what were once popular shops and eateries across the city are now just empty units.

The most recent store to close down in the city centre is the American coffee house, Starbucks, which is located on Cornmarket Street.

While the famed coffee shop withstood the first parts of the pandemic, its lease expired this year.

A spokesperson from Starbucks UK has said: “We can confirm that this licensed store location at 6/7 Cornmarket Street in Oxford City Centre has now closed as it reached the end of its lease.

"We would like to thank our customers for their loyalty over the years and let them know their nearest Starbucks store is nearby at Headington.”

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The nearest Starbucks to the city centre is now on London Road in Headington.

Other popular cafes that closed for good after the lockdown earlier this year include the French bakery, Patisserie Valerie, which was located on the High Street.

In February shoppers were shocked when the high street brand, Topshop, which rose to popularity in the 1980s, announced that it would permanently close down all of its stores nationwide, with some select items being sold through the online retailer ASOS.

The Oxford store on Queen Market was emptied out in February, with devastated staff leaving a handwritten message on the store door that they were ‘heartbroken’ that they would have to ‘close the doors forever’.

Debenhams, one of the city’s beloved department stores, announced it would not be reopening its store on Magdalen Street after the end of the third lockdown in a letter addressed to staff.

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Its owners, the Glasgow-based Strathclyde Pension Fund, then announced that the building might be converted into either office spaces or a hotel.

This would not be the only department store in the city centre to be converted into tourist accommodation.

In December 2020 it was announced that Boswell’s, Oxford’s oldest department store that had to close in 2019, would be converted into a luxury four-star hotel.

Big national chains, however, have not been the only victims of the ongoing economic crisis - spurred on by the pandemic.

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Beloved independent stores, some of which have been in the city for years, have also taken a toll.

Among them was the city’s last remaining party shop, Frog Orange in Jericho, which ended more than 30 years of successful trading after announcing it had a ‘30 per cent’ drop in revenue.

Yet it has not all been bad news - in recent months new businesses have moved into some of the empty units across the city centre in hope their brands will help reinvigorate the high street economy.

Just last month the brand new chocolate shop Montezuma’s, specialising in vegan chocolates, opened its doors on Queen Street.

Further down the High Street, a couple has expanded its Brighton-based tea shop, called Bird and Blend.