Swapping clothing and haberdashery for king-size beds and cocktails, the transformation of Boswells into The Store Hotel is cleverly done, finds Annunciata Elwes.
When I mentioned Boswells to my mother, she immediately began to reminisce about the scarfs, lipstick and whatever else she’d bought there over the years.
Everybody who knows Oxford has fond memories of Boswells — this is no surprise as, founded in 1738, it was the second oldest family-owned department store in the world when it closed down, Covid-struck, in 2020.
This sad, but perhaps predictable end of an era has made way for the building’s reincarnation as The Store Hotel — and the developers have made sure history is honoured.
Black-and-white photos from the Boswells archive adorn the walls; other memorabilia includes an artwork made from a Dulux paint colour chart.
‘We wanted it to feel part of the city still,’ explains Eleanor Alexander of developer Reef Origin. ‘So we kept the ground-floor open and accessible. It feels part of the streetscape, just as it did when it was a department store. But we also wanted to retain the journey-like intrigue of the shopping experience, where you go in to get socks but come out with perfume and a hat. The Store’s ground-floor blends through rooms and zones of restaurant, bar and sitting areas — different departments if you will.’
The rooms
In a city where space is a premium and rooftops are coveted, the view from our fourth floor private balcony was a true luxury. From our sun-warmed sofa surrounded by pot plants, we sipped wild apple and pine forest Idyll sodas and munched on Fatso dark chocolate raided from the mini-bar, and gazed first along Magdalen Street, with its 13th-century church, then east down Broad Street, beyond Balliol College just opposite and Trinity’s leafy confines, towards Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre, looking for all the world like a cupcake with its distinctive white-and-green cupola the cherry on top.
Evident care has gone into bedroom design at The Store, using soft, muted tones with, here and there, a nod to the building’s 1920s origins, a pleasing contrast to the ancient cityscape outside glimpsed through billowing white curtains.
Eating and drinking
Continuing our rooftop tour, we had drinks even higher, on the fifth-floor bar The Roof at The Store, which has teamed up with the award-winning Hawkridge Distillers to create exclusive gin, rum and vodka.
‘The gin is citrus focused with a hint of rosemary, while the rum is blended in-house to maintain purity and give it a deep textured flavour with notes of caramel, vanilla, and tobacco,’ explains Hawkridge founder James Gurney.
‘Finally, the vodka is created using an old Polish process, which remains a secret in our distillery, to produce an exceptionally smooth drink, that could be drunk neat, as well as providing a perfect base for so many cocktails.’
Bespoke cocktails are named from literary greats, such as Modern Education (Brideshead Revisited), The Value of Nothing (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and Second Breakfast (The Lord of the Rings).
I can confirm they also provide an excellent Aperol Spritz and the bar staff are full of encyclopaedic information on which exact rooftops are of most interest.
Later on, given how empty the ground-floor restaurant was — which, to be fair, is expected on a Monday night after a recent opening — I was happily surprised at the exceptional food.
Treadwell sits on the site of the Treadwell Passage, which once bustled with fish hawkers, shoemaker, scavengers, needlewoman and more.
This eccentricity is playfully reflected in an ‘untraditionally British’ menu from chef Andy Robinson; the rosemary and thyme brined pork tomahawk was an absolute delight, if a little too generous a portion.
Apparently, the chorizo, manchego and fried-egg sandwich is a brunch favourite.
How they’ll keep you busy
I could have sat on our balcony indulging in spoils from the mini-bar for ages, but an hour or two in the subterranean spa was a fine alternative, where treatments are available using products from British brand Oskia.
From my treatment room, I could see (but not hear) the shoes and ankles of pedestrians on the pavement above from a sliver of a window at the top of the room, which enhanced the feeling that I had been invited into a secret haven in the middle of a bustling city.
What else to do while you’re there
Our outrage at finding other people sitting on Lyra’s bench in the Botanic Gardens (if you’ve you’ve read the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy, you’ll know) was complete when, hovering for a few minutes, we overheard the couple talking about the mundane details of what they were going to buy for dinner.
‘Not a conversation for a magical bench between worlds,’ we tutted, stomping off to find the water-lily house and Agatha Christie’s poisonous plants.
Beyond this little paradise (on land that was once a medieval Jewish cemetery), there is too much to admire in a city of dreaming spires to detail here.
We managed a trip to the Bodleian’s Divinity School (above), highly recognisable as a film set for various ‘Harry Potter’ scenes. I found myself wondering if, when exams were once held here beneath the judgemental gaze of the building’s donors carved into the elaborate vaulted ceiling, anyone was ever allowed to sit in Drake’s chair for luck (made from the timbers of Sir Francis Drake’s ship and given to the library in 1662).
We found more comfortable seats in another garden, at Quod restaurant in the Old Bank on the High Street, where after a globe artichoke salad with walnuts, apple and pecorino, we could not resist sharing a plate of roast apricots with mint sorbet and some Pimm’s jelly.
This refreshing pitstop gave us more fuel for pounding the pavements as one is compelled to do in Oxford, merely for wandering’s sake. The colourful theatre posters propped on boards reminded me of Florence and the air of magic continued in shops such as Scriptum on Turl Street, with its bizarre mix of sealing wax, melting spoons, handmade marbled paper, leather journals and Shakespeare-themed tarot cards.
Who is it for?
Given The Store’s central location, it’s a good base for anyone from couples and families to parents of students, although be aware that the nearest parking is a 10 minute walk away and not cheap.
And everyone should visit Oxford.
What gives it the ‘wow’ factor?
The feeling of being in the centre of centuries of history, but I suppose that’s an Oxford thing; you step on the past without even realising, such as the iron cross embedded in the road just outside on Broad Street, marking where the Oxford Martyrs were burned at the stake in 1555.
As The Store is a former department store right at the heart of the city, it has been a hub for generations and the draw is still powerful.
The one thing we’d change
The hot-drink situation at breakfast. For some reason, even though this is a five-star hotel and there are plenty of wait staff milling around, the protocol is that guests go up to a tea and coffee station to fetch their own hot drinks — neither practical nor relaxing.
Staff are new and it shows in some of their interactions with guests — a wrinkle that should be ironed out in the coming months.
Rooms at The Store from £285 per night, including breakfast. Visit www.thestoreoxford.com for more information and to book.
