The Westgate Oxford Shopping Centre guide

Oxford is a vibrant city with a population of over 150,000 people and a popular destination for tourists and those that live in Oxfordshire. The central retail hub is the Westgate Oxford Shopping Centre, so here are some essential tips if you’re planning on heading down soon for residents and visitors,

Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford

Shoppers flock to the Westgate in Oxford to satisfy their retail needs. Home to over 125 stores over 800,000 square feet retail space that range from the anchor tenant John Lewis to high street fashion, beauty and food. With a boutique cinema and junkyard golf club, a number of high-profile restaurants and high-end rooftop bars, making it the perfect place to spend your leisure time.

It’s also the perfect place to spend time with friends on a Saturday morning or after school. The Westgate building offers an alternative to shopping online where you can browse stores and window-shop without buying anything at all.

Fashion Options

If you’re looking for some new clothes, there is a huge selection of high-street fashion shops and designer clothing brands including Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Mango, New Look, Next, Reiss, H&M, Primark, Ted Baker, River Island, Superdry, Vans, Timberland, Urban Outfitters, and Russell & Bromley.

So there is plenty of choice for trying on your favourite designer brand to get the right size and save on shipping and returns. As an extra bonus you often see an end of season sale for high quality garments at a discount price.

Beauty Products

The Westgate centre also provides 12 of the best beauty stores in its shopping centre. From makeup to hair care, it has every item you need for your daily routine.

Superdrug is a popular place for shoppers as they have a vast selection of products on offer, so take your time looking around. If you’re not sure what to buy, they have amazing staff who are always happy to help.

You also can’t forget Lush as this store sells handmade bath and beauty products that are great for anyone with sensitive skin. They also have a wide variety of bath bombs that are popular with everyone.

Food Choices

The Westgate Mall has plenty of high-profile restaurants taking food orders, so don’t forget to take a break from shopping. There are over 20 restaurants, cafes and bars spread over 3 floors of the Shopping Centre. These establishments include a mixture of high-end and casual bars and restaurants and the amazing roof terrace with al fresco dining. There are cheaper meal deals alternatives and offers from various outlets too.

Options include Nando’s, Pret, Mowgli, Krispy Kreme, Costa Coffee, Pho, Pizza Pilgrims, Tommi’s Burger Joint and Sticks N Sushi.

Other stores

Westgate also has the Disney Store, Hamleys, 3 store, EE, O2, Ernest Jones, Goldsmiths, Hotel Chocolate,

Leisure Facilities

If you’re just visiting the centre to have a good time then you’ll find many fun activities that will put smiles on all your faces. You’ll find a wide range of places to visit including the Junkyard Golf Club, Escape Hunt, Buzz Gym and the Curzon cinema.

Westgate Shopping Centre – A Guide for Shoppers

It never hurts to put a little guide together of what to plan, prepare for and expect when you visit the shopping centre.

1: Be Prepared

It’s worth planning what shops you want to visit in advance by checking the up-to-date store guide on the Westgate website. There are information and floor plans available on site too.

2: Make Use of Free Wi-Fi

As well as having plenty of shops to browse, there are also plenty of free WiFi hotspots around the centre to keep your kids entertained while shopping. You’ll just need to sign up to the free wifi by searching for ‘WestgateGuest’.

3: Eat Something

If you were planning on spending all day in the Westgate don’t forget to take some time out for lunch or dinner at one of their many restaurants. It’s the only way you can keep up your energy levels to look in the multiple stores that are available to shop.

4: Many Baby & Child Facilities Available

They have a good range of family-friendly restaurants and facilities within the centre. The facilities available to parents include:

• 32 parent and baby car parking spaces in their car park
• Baby change facilities positioned in Westgate Social and on our Roof Terrace
• Breastfeeding facilities on their Roof Terrace
• Baby change facilities positioned in Shopmobility area

5: Accessible Services Available

Westgate provides easy wheelchair-friendly access to the centre and lifts. Also located on the Roof Terrace is a dedicated toilet facility with a Changing Places Facility.

How to get there

Westgate is located by the medieval Oxford Castle quarter which is a good landmark. Other points of reference include Queen Street, Bonn Square, Castle Street, Norfolk Street, Oxpens Road, Old Greyfriars Street, Roger Bacon Lane and St Ebbes Street.

The site is named after the medieval West Gate into the city of Oxford. The original Westgate Centre opened in 1972 with a Selfridges and Sainsbury’s and the central library was also moved from the town hall.

By Park & Ride Services

You can park and ride from 4 locations; Pear Tree (OX2 8JZ), Thornhill (OX3 8DP), Redbridge (OX1 4XG) and Seacourt (OX2 0HP) in Oxfordshire that will take you straight to the centre.

You’ll have up to 11 hours of parking included in your ticket and the buses will drop you off and pick you up directly outside Westgate. Kids go free, and the maximum cost is £6.80 for family parking and bus travel. This is cheaper than parking in the Underground carpark.

By Car

It is recommended that you use the Park & Ride locations to get to the centre as the parking spaces in the on-site basement car park are limited.

If you do decide to drive then follow the Oxford Westgate signs or type in the address (OX1 1TS) on your Sat Nav and make sure to direct yourself to the underground car park when you arrive.

By Train

Oxford Station is the city’s main rail station and there are frequent trains from/to Birmingham New Street, London Paddington and London Marylebone for those visiting from outside the city.

The station is located in the west of the city centre which is only A 10-minute walk. There are many buses that stop at the station and there is a taxi rank that is situated outside of it.

By Bike

There are multiple bicycle spaces around Westgate which include indoor and outdoor secure parking stands (Grayfrairs Place – Northern end of Old Greyfrairs Street)

On the Oxford City Council site, there is detailed amount of information showing extensive cycle facilities across the city centre including a map of cycle routes, cycle parking and bike shops.

Westgate Oxford Opening Hours

Westgate is open 7 days a week from 10am to 8pm Monday to Friday, but with cafes and bars open outside the core hours. Saturday has an earlier opening time of 9am, with Sunday trading 11am to 5pm.

The Cinema, leisure and rooftop restaurants have longer hours: