Oxford's Covered Market

In the centre of the University City of Oxford off the High Street you go through lanes and passageways to find the perfect antidote to Clone Town Britain, Oxford’s Covered Market. Full of colour, enterprise and activity it is coveted both by the Town and Gown; The citizens of Oxford and the great floating population of students, staff and visitors to its Universities. The Covered Market offers shops and Cafes run by real people for real people selling real stuff often sourced locally! So you will find butchers, bakers, fishmongers, greengrocers, craft and clothes shops and much more along with friendly Cafes not to mention Moo-Moo's Milkshakes which serves 165 different flavours!



Oxford’s Covered Market was officially opened on 1 November 1774 and is still going strong today. Originally its width corresponded to the elegant and balanced frontage of the houses (now shops) at 13, 14, 15, and 16 High Street, which were rebuilt in 1774. The Covered Market was started in response to a general wish to clear up the untidy mess and unsavoury stalls of traders from the main streets.



John Gwynn, the architect of Magdalen Bridge, drew up the plans and designed the High Street front with its four entrances. In 1772, the newly-formed Market committee, half of whose members came from the town and half from the university, accepted an estimate of nine hundred and sixteen pounds ten shillings, for the building of twenty butchers' shops. Twenty more soon followed, and after 1773 meat was allowed to be sold only inside the market. From this nucleus the market grew, with stalls for garden produce, pig meat, dairy products and fish.


Pieminster Pie shop

Oxford has had a market probably since the late ninth century, when the town was fortified, or perhaps earlier, but the first written reference is found in twelfth century records. It started at Carfax (the main crossroads) and spread along adjoining streets. Land at the town centre was expensive, and so the shops here had narrow frontages, barely two metres wide. This small size makes it easier to believe that there were, at one time, forty seven tailors shops in Oxford! Shops then were workshops where goods were made to order, rather than stores; except perhaps the spicers shops which were more like our grocers today.





In the Middle Ages, goldsmiths, mercers (cloth merchants) and tanners used to trade in shops on or near the site of today’s Covered Market. There were some academic halls (student hostels) here too. Butchers stalls were set up in High Street and Butchers Row (now Queen Street). So many traders existed in and around the centre that travelling through the town must have become increasingly difficult as more and more people were attracted to the market, and in 1771 the Mileways Act condemned the remains of medieval street trading in High Street and St Aldates.


The Oxford made Mini in cake in the Covered Market


Life will be better when we get out of here?

The earliest stalls were in colonnaded blocks: the high-raftered roofs of today are the outcome of nineteenth century rebuilding. Some stalls are used as single units but many traders have expanded their businesses and taken over several tenancies. Today you can still buy a great selection of meat and fish here, and numerous cheeses, but the scope of trading has enlarged since the early days. Fruit and vegetable stalls still make colourful displays but much of the produce is now imported from all over the world. You will find all sorts of goods, clothes, records, pine furniture and much, much, more.





As with many a market, its smells are part of the atmosphere. It may be the smell of fresh ground coffee that draws you in for refreshment, but it could be the attractive displays of the tenants, flowers, fruit, and so on that prompts you to look for the unexpected or special gift. If the spice of life is variety, then it will be seen here.




Diversity on a cake

From the wide variety of outlets let me pick out some personal favourites. The Oxford Cake Shop is located within the historic Covered Market and is a focal point for many of the guided walking tours that pass through the city as well as providing locals and tourists with an opportunity to watch skilled cake artists at work. Their cakes are unique, combining superb craftsmanship and imagination with a very definite sense of humour. Their display never fails to make me smile.


The Royal Wedding Cake



http://www.the-cakeshop.co.uk

Hayman’s Fisheries was opened by Charles Hayman in 1928 who continued to work in the business until his retirement in the late 1960s. Its large homidorium filled with live crabs and lobsters is always an eye catcher but it specialises in fresh British indoor fish and has a large wholesale business supplying the colleges and catering outlets in Oxford.

http://www.haymansfisheries.co.uk


M. Feller, Sons and Daughter.

The wonderfully titled butchers “M. Feller, Son & Daughter” whose equally wonderful slogan is “In nature we trust" is a superb organic butcher’s whose display coming up to Christmas of plump turkeys is a sight to behold. It always has a large display of Fowl and Game including Deer and Wild Boar at Xmas. Many a kid is shocked passing by when they find out what really happened to Bambi!

http://mfeller.co.uk

The Oxford Cheese company is the nearest you will get to a French Fromagerie in England and like all real cheese shops there is no need to ask questions; just inhale and taste! It has a great selection always well presented in good condition.

http://www.oxfordfinefood.com/oxford-organix-ltd.html/

Ben’s Cookies, founded by Helge Rubenstein, an avowed chocoholic, in 1983 now has 11 stores but the outlet in the Covered Market was their first. The Oxford public are a partisan bunch but many agree with their opinion that Ben’s are just the best cookies you can get, often straight out od the in-shop oven.

http://www.benscookies.com



My own personal favourite is another family run business called Moo-Moo's. It offers a mind boggling range of 165 different flavours of shakes and smoothies. Set up by Jason and Bina in 2006 moo-moo's has gained a cult following and status. It is popular amongst the students, tourists and locals alike, offering a wide range of chilled fruit smoothies to milkshakes made with ice-cream and blended with the favourite ingredient of your choice. The name moo-moo's was chosen for the business because their oldest daughter "India" when she was a little child used to call her milky drinks "moo moo’s” she is now 14 years old!! My own personal favourite? None other than the rhubarb and custard milk shake. Oh, I’m glad I told you that! The pressure of keeping it a secret was getting to me!


165 Flavours!

http://www.moo-moos.co.uk/

There are many good cafes and coffeshops in the Market so there are no shortage of pit shop opportunities and being frequented year round by students and natives they are generally good value. My own favourite is the unpretentious Browns Café run by a charming and hard working Portuguese couple.



Do make a point of visiting the Covered Market and supporting independent retailers when you are in Oxford. Outside the Market Oxford sadly is very much part of Clone Town Britain with the High Street and the Centres dominated by Identikit chains. In the Covered Market it has the real deal, a most enjoyable splash of colour and atmosphere run by independent retailers providing the type of shopping experience “Real “ people can relate to. A compulsory stop on any visit to the City of the Dreaming Spires.






For more info and market opening times see;

http://www.oxford-covered-market.co.uk



See also; Oxford Rambles

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/05/oxford-rambles.html

It’s not a fair exchange rate; it’s a rip off M & S rate!

Marks and Spencer’s is the ubiquitous UK High Street chain, commonly known as M & S, which has been struggling of late but trades heavily on being an ethical business which consumers can trust and identify with, as it says itself it represents; “Quality, Value, Service, Innovation and Trust which have stood the business in good stead for 125 years.” Indeed its corporate tag-line is “YOUR M &S.”

So just how trustworthy is this trusted retailer? Well lately it has changed the terms of trade with its customers. It used to allow you return products within 90 days, with no great fanfare it has changed this to 35 days and returns must now be in a “saleable condition.” This is now interpreted differently than before so if for instance you wear a suit which you decide is too big / small, they won’t let you return it despite many stores not having fitting rooms (they close them during sale periods) or indeed or indeed enough staff to help you due to cutbacks. They have also stopped in-store ordering and this can now only be done over the internet, neatly excluding their loyalest older customers.

But they also trumpet M & S Money and their competitive commission free exchange rates on foreign currency. However there is one category of customer they don’t want to be competitive with, UK customers who receive Euro gift cards from abroad. So I (gratefully) receive a 50 Euro gift card at Xmas and I think “Great, the Euro is almost 1-to-1 on the exchange rate and M & S have the conversion plugged into their UK tills so no problem!”


Thank you for buying a Euro gift card - We will now rip you off; there is no Plan B

Imagine then my astonishment in trying to use my 50 Euro card on 28th December 2009 and finding out they were giving a conversion rate of 1.33 making it worth paltry £37.59 sterling. If they gave you the same rate of 1.0939 their Bureau de Change’s were offering on the same day it would be worth £45.71 or an amazing 22% more. Consider the double-whammy of arrogance on this one as somebody has paid them that 50 Euro some time in advance so they have had that money interest free – hence this “trusted retailer” feels free to rip off Euro gift card holders by offering them a totally uncompetitive exchange rate that M & S Money would never offer as they would have no business.

I wish I could tell you what this trusted retailer thinks in its 125th anniversary year but their “Customer Services” on 0845 609 0200 has not kept its promise to get back to me. I suspect this con on mugging Euro gift card customers along with Sir. Stuart Rose and Marks & Spencer’s are after 125 years a bit past their sell-by-date!

F Word best local restaurant

Gordon Ramsay

I rediscovered an old friend tonight when snowbound at -8 in Bucks and with 20 cm of snow predicted I happened on the “F Word” on Channel 4. The F stands for Food and this is a programme hosted by the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to find Britain’s best neighbourhood restaurant. The new series celebrates the very best of Britain’s independent local restaurants with the help of nominations from thousands of restaurant goers across the country. So I was astonished to see one of the semi-finalists was Retsina my favourite Greek Restaurant for many years which I thought had closed down!

Retsina is a classic family run Greek restaurant owned by Minas Mina. The restaurant was passed down to him from his parents 12 years ago who thought it was 'about time he did some work'. Mina’s mother, 63 year old Zeta, is still going strong in the kitchen cooking traditional Greek food she learnt from her mother in Crete. You'll find on the menu very old style, classic, Greek food. The ingredients are sourced from Greek suppliers and everything, except for the kebabs, is made in advance including a Souvlaki that takes three hours to cook. The restaurant has been open for three and a half years. Prior to this Retsina was in Primrose Hill for 25 years but it only seated 45 and they wished to expand so had to move.


Owner Minas Mina, left, with his mother Zeta Mina and head waiter Vassos Koutri

I knew Harry & Zeta for many years when they were in Primrose Hill and had many a lovely evening in their original restaurant where we always relaxed and felt it was great value. It got an eclectic mix of customers and was a real neighbourhood treasure with the famous and the lumpen proletariat sharing the space and atmosphere in the small shoulder to shoulder taverna. I remember seeing David Bailey and Kingsley Amis there amongst other well known faces on occasion.

After we moved neighbourhood we visited after a gap and were devastated to see it closed - we felt like we had lost an old friend. I'm sorry they didn't go further in the "F Word" but now we know they have reopened we'll make a beeline to 48-50 Belsize Lane and renew the friendship. It is family business's like Retsina that give the neighbourhoods of London the village feel which makes them worth having and helps to neutralises the awful effects of "Clone Town Britain" which has greatly contributed to the decline of the UK's High Streets and the character of neighbourhoods.



That's why I delighted the F Word has concentrated on Independents, that and the fact it has reawakened an old friendship! I’m sure renewing our acquaintance with Retsina will be like drinking the namesake wine which is aged in barrels coated with pine resin which gives it its distinctive taste – the first bottle is an acquired taste but by the time you get onto the second bottle it is Nectar!

Yammas Retsina! See you soon!

Here are Retsina’s recipes from the F Word semi-final;

Retsina grilled sardines in a herb and tomato sauce



Serves 4

Ingredients

For the sardines:

4 large sardines, gutted and scaled
2 tbsp dried oregano
For the tomato sauce:
1 garlic, clove
30g bunch coriander
60g bunch parsley
Salt to taste
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp sweet paprika
200g chopped tomatoes

For the basting oil:

1 tbsp dried oregano
100ml olive oil
1 lemon, juice
To garnish:

150g watercress, washed
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Salt
Black pepper
Olive oil

Method: How to make grilled sardines in a herb and tomato sauce

1. For the herb and tomato sauce, heat a large frying with a little olive oil and add all the spices, herbs and garlic over a medium heat and cook for 1-2 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, cook on a medium heat for 6 – 7 minutes and reserve in the pan to keep the sauce warm.

2. Sprinkle each sardine with salt, black pepper, a little olive oil and dried oregano. Place directly onto a griddle pan for 6-8 minutes, basting frequently with the oregano and lemon infused basting oil.

3. Serve the griddled fish with a spoonful of the herb and tomato sauce, watercress and a wedge of lemon.

Grilled meats with tzatziki and tabbouleh



Serves 4

Ingredients

4 lamb cutlets
4 x 35g thin slices of calves’ liver
For the lamb kebabs:
200g cubed lamb leg
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp red pepper puree
1 lemon, juiced

For the chicken kebabs:

200g cubed chicken breast
1 tbsp dried oregano
75g Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp red pepper puree
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 lemon, juiced

For the kebab garnish:

1 red pepper, deseeded, cut into 8 pieces
1 onion, peeled, quartered
4 tomatoes, quartered

For the tabbouleh:

100g bulgur wheat
225ml boiling water
100g bunch flat leaf parsley, picked and coarsely chopped
30g bunch of mint, picked and coarsely chopped
1 medium red onion, finely diced
5 tomatoes, finely diced

For the tzatziki:

1 whole cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and finely diced
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp malt vinegar
2 tsp salt
1 clove garlic
25g dried mint
200g Greek yogurt
For garnish:
80g rocket leaves
1 lemon cut into wedges
Salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Dried oregano

Equipment needed:8 metal skewers

Method: How to make a selection of grilled meats with tzatziki and tabbouleh.

1. For the lamb kebab, place the diced leg meat in a bowl; coat the meat in the red pepper puree, lemon juice and oregano, season with salt and pepper. Place in a clean airtight container and leave to marinate overnight.

2. For the chicken kebabs, place the diced chicken in a bowl and coat with the oregano, Greek yogurt, pepper puree, crushed garlic, lemon juice and a little olive oil, place in clean airtight container and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight.

3. Cut the pepper, onion and tomato ready to garnish the marinated chicken and lamb kebab skewers.

4. For the tabbouleh, place the bulgur wheat in a pan and pour on the boiling water, simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on stirring occasionally and, when tender, drain any excess water. Chop the parsley, mint, red onion and tomatoes and add to a large bowl. Once the bulgur wheat has cooled, add to the bowl and mix. Add a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. For the tzatziki, peel the cucumber, cut lengthways and remove seeds, dice the cucumber and sprinkle with the salt and drain in a colander for 15 minutes to allow all the excess juice to be drawn out. Combine the drained cucumber with all the tzatziki ingredients apart from the yogurt and mix in a large bowl; finally add the yogurt and mix, season with salt and black pepper to taste then leave in the fridge until needed.

6. Skewer the chicken and lamb pieces, integrating with the chopped pepper, tomato and onion. Heat a large griddle plate or frying pan with some olive oil and cook the kebabs on one side for a couple of minutes. Baste with a mixture of two parts olive oil to one part lemon juice, a pinch of oregano, salt and pepper before turning and adding the lamb cutlets and cooking for 3-4 minutes, basting again if the meat starts to colour too much.

7. Finally grill the calves liver for about 30 seconds on each side. Check that all the meat is cooked through and serve with a spoon of tzatziki and tabbouleh, some rocket leaves and a wedge of lemon.

Now check out the F Word’s website;

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/f-word/series-5/index.html

Retsina

Address: 48-50 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5AR
Tel: 020 7431 5855

Lunch: Tues-Sat 12-3pm Dinner: Mon-Sat 6-11pm Sunday: all day 12N-11pm

Nearby Tube/Rail stations:

Belsize Park Tube Station, Finchley Road Tube Station, Finchley Road and Frognal Station

http://www.retsina-london.com/


Retsina

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.

Michael Winner takes it all!

And all this on the day Findus * and World of Leather go into Administration! So we won't be able to sit on red leather settees eating fish fingers to cheer ourselves up!

* Not a Latin name but an amalgam of "Food INDUStries".

Falling Comets

There is Blood on British High streets as the declining consumer retail spend is cannibalised by deep across the board discounting by all the major retailers. Marks and Spencer is cutting prices in its clothing and homeware departments by 20% for one day only on Thursday, its first one-day sale for four years. "The customer is not conditioned to expect M&S to do these things very often," retail analyst Fraser Ramzan, of Nomura, said. Some M&S stores will stay open until midnight for the discount day. BHS reacted to this unprecedented deep discounting by Marks and Sparks by launching a 3 day 30% discount event the very next day and Debenhams launched a 2 day 25% discount event whilst the same day Mark One, the fashion retailer, announced it had appointed administrators, no doubt the latest of many such retail failures.

Yesterday Sainsbury advertised 1 litre of Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur at £10, down from £17.99, today Tesco hit back with one litre at £8.00. I don’t like Tesco (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/tesco-supermarket-which-arte.html ) but nobody can accuse them of being slow in responding to competition. M & S launched two dine in for £10.00 for a main course, side dish, desert and a bottle of wine for two, Tesco have launched a similar offer for £9.00 with wine and £5.00 without. Meanwhile Tesco have responded to the discounter challenge from Aldi, Lidl and Netto by branding themselves as “Britain’s Biggest Discounter” and launching copy cat ranges. Truly, in 2008 Credit Crunch Land retailing is strictly for the brave!



Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Sir Philip Green's Arcadia clothes empire have all been slashing prices this week in an attempt to lure shoppers. The John Lewis decline extended the near 10% fall suffered in the previous week. Waitrose, the supermarket owned by John Lewis, joined the gloom. Its weekly sales fell 4.6%, a performance that suggests even large food retailers may have a tough Christmas. Retailers hope recent interest rate cuts will filter through to shoppers in time to rescue Christmas. The Bank of England is expected to cut rates again next month perhaps to 2.5%. Marks & Spencer saw like-for-like sales fall 6.1% in the 13 weeks to 27 September, while Arcadia Group, the owner of such retailers as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burtons, experienced a 2.8% drop from 2007.

Sales on the UK's High Streets fell by a lower-than-expected 0.1% in October, figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown. The decline was much less than the 0.9% drop that analysts had predicted after sales fell by 0.4% in September. Retail sales grew at an annual rate of 1.9% compared with 1.7% in September. Many retailers have opted to hold pre-Christmas sales in a bid to boost spending at what should be their busiest time of year. Food sales rose 1% in October, but non-food sales fell 1.1%. Sales of household goods were down 1.5% and clothing sales fell 3.4%. "The drop in non-food sales clearly suggests that discretionary spending is taking a hit," said Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics.

The retail sector is continuing to suffer at the hands of the housing market slowdown with the Comet electrical goods chain warning yesterday that it is heading for a loss because of disappointing sales of refrigerators and washing machines. The company, part of the pan-European Kesa Electricals giant, believes that people are unable to move home and are not splashing out on new household appliances. Comet is also suffering because more people are shopping online. The scale of the setback during the three months of the year to the end of July surprised analysts. Sales at the chain of 251 stores fell by a thumping 9.9 per cent. This is far worse than the rival electrical chain Currys, which has reported sales 7 per cent lower.



However at the weekend the Celtic Sage at Comet’s out of town store in Aylesbury the Celtic Sage gained an insight into why Comet is such a poor customer proposition. The outlet is fine from the “Big White Shed” school of retailing and as you go in helpful young staff are on hand to assist and guide and the layout is clean and open with an air of activity to draw you in. However all the Sage wanted were 5 hoover bags for his Miele vacuum cleaner. These are £6.99 in John Lewis but here in Comet they were a whopping £11.99, an amazing 72% MORE EXPENSIVE than on the high street. I bought the bags under protest but made a mental note not to darken the door of Comet again for like every customer I know when I have been treated like a fool. So don’t bother to sell me a big ticket item, Barrow boy in Comet’s marketing department you have lost this customer’s loyalty. This is a mistake failing retail propositions make in thinking that customers will be price insensitive on accessories. Jessops the camera shop did the same to me by trying to charge twice what Argos would charge for rechargeable batteries; result I’ll never buy a big ticket item like a camera there.


The luxurious £11.99 vacuum bags from Comet!

Comet tries to defend its position and said it had protected margins by refusing to slash prices to draw buyers into its stores. "One day the cycle will tick up – in the meantime the business is refusing to chase unprofitable revenue," said an adviser in September 2008. Well I’m sure this sounded sensible then and he has left to pursue “new opportunities” elsewhere by now! Sales of laptops and televisions were more resilient, although the company admitted "we now anticipate Comet will make a loss in the first half". Kesa's arguments did not satisfy the stock market, which marked its shares down by nearly 10 per cent. Analysts slashed profit forecasts for the current year. Overall, Kesa, which takes in the French electrical chain Darty and other retail outlets operating throughout Belgium, Holland and Slovakia, reported a 4.7 fall in sales for the opening quarter. Darty fared better than Comet with sales down by 3.2 per cent, but conditions in France remain tough and the scale of the slowdown also caused concern in the market. Unconnected with the Celtic Sage’s rip off vacuum bags the CEO has fallen on his sword (sorry; “decided to retire”) and Jean-Noel Labroue will leave after a handover period to Thierry Falque-Pierrotin who is joining the Group on 5 January 2009 as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). I hope he does well but he will do it without my help, once you lose a customer he stays lost, and that is a home truth the Barrow Boys in marketing don’t understand and there is no point in paying large amounts of money to Finsbury PR whilst squandering customer loyalty!


Oxford Street

Another company which is surprised that shoppers are shunning it is The John Lewis Partnership. Weekly sales at John Lewis's flagship London stores lurched downwards once again as shoppers held off on making purchases in the hope prices will keep falling. The Oxford Street store that usually does well whatever the economic weather saw sales off 12.6%. Other stores in highly affluent areas also struggled. The Peter Jones branch at Sloane Square was down 18.6%. Cambridge down 26.7%, Bluewater off 15.7% and Kingston down 17.9% continued the trend. This was part of a wider slump at John Lewis in the week to 15 November when sales across the country fell 14% on average. This is the worst weekly sales performance in at least a year and suggests that consumers are ignoring the lure of sales in the expectation that stores will be forced to slash prices again before Christmas. Barry Matheson, the retailer's head of selling development, said: "There can be no getting away from it that last week was a disappointment. "We are not immune from the reality of the economic crisis that grasps every headline. “Even John Lewis's internet arm is struggling, with sales down 8.8%.”

Well Barry Matheson, let me help you to understand why sales in Oxford Street and elsewhere are falling. Recently I went into the store to buy a pair of gray casual trousers. In the large Menswear department there was only one type for sale, A German “No Name” Brand I had never heard of but actually manufactured in Bulgaria and a rather frumpy looking wool / polyester mix amazingly priced at £80.00. I left and down the road at M & S they had over 20 different types in stock and I bought a smart looking wool / cashmere mix for £35.00. Similarly I went into Peter Jones in Sloane Square to look for a casual jacket. The cheapest available was a £220 “designer” jacket that looked, well, like nothing. Strangely under their “Never knowingly undersold” policy a stereo would be more expensive in John Lewis’s Milton Keynes store than in Peter Jones, Sloane Square. For the price comparison policy applies to retailers within 3 miles so there are lots of electrical discounters for audio equipment in Chelsea but not in Buckinghamshire! Look for an Irish “Claddagh Ring” or Indian style jewellery in John Lewis you will be disappointed for its buyers’ are firmly stuck in a twin set and pearls Home Counties mindset. And it is owned by its staff which frequently translates into overstaffed shops where customers are ignored whilst staff cluster with each other or, as in Milton Keynes, have to take a ticket and queue to speak to a staff member, a rather quaint approach to people who want to give you money. Or I could mention the ludicrous pricing and slapdash service in the “Place to Eat” which is always chaotic and is by any standards a premium priced self service. No doubt this is lost on Andy Street, the CEO, as he leaves the John Lewis Palace at 171, Victoria Street in his chauffeur driven Jaguar, how retro!




Happy Xmas, John Lewis?

Earlier this month, the Bank of England cut interest rates to 3% from 4.5% in the hope of putting more money in consumers' pockets and encouraging them to spend. However, some analysts say that any positive effect - if it comes at all - will be too late to boost sales in the run-up to Christmas as rising unemployment has also dented consumer confidence. So expect the “Dog eats Dog” atmosphere to continue on the UK High Street. And in this climate consumers will be unforgiving to retailers who underestimate their intelligence. Be they Comet with its rip off “bits and pieces” and bias towards overpriced warranties and John Lewis which consistently gets its price point wrong and is that bit “too popular with itself.”