Cornmarket and Queen Street along with the High and Magdalen Street are the main shopping streets in Oxford, with most high-street shops and brand names represented. These shops and brands can also be found in the Westgate and Clarendon Centre indoor malls.

The Covered Market on High Street has a slightly more alternative feel, consisting as it does of small shops selling everything from hand-made hats and gifts to Oxford sausages and antiquarian books. Cafes, sandwich stalls, butchers, bakers, delicatessens, green grocers and florists are also available.

Oxford is great for book lovers, offering some of the best book browsing opportunities in the land, whether in second-hand and antiquarian bookshops or in the modern bookstores. The main Blackwells bookstore at 53 Broad Street includes the Norrington Room, which houses the largest display of books for sale in one room anywhere in the world.

Little Clarendon Street, Turl Street, Golden Cross and Gloucester Green are smaller streets with many charming gift shops, boutiques, silver specialists, jewellers or other independent shops of character.

Gloucester Green has an open air market on Wednesday and an antiques and bric-a-brac market on Thursdays, plus a farmers' market on the first Thursday of each month.