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Family friendly fun this weekend – for free!

Posted by Emma Righton on Wednesday 13 April

If you’re visiting Oxford with your family, you are spoilt for choice for fun things to do together.

We love a visit to Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, where every Saturday it holds a free ‘object handling’ session from 11am to 1pm for children and family.

Discover and see up close the wonderful and fascinating piece’s from the museum’s collection.

Youngsters can also borrow a backpack full of activities to do throughout the museum, available from the info point every Saturday from 10am to 4.30am.

And this weekend there is something fun for the adults too.

The museum is holding a folk weekend from Saturday 16 April to Sunday 17 April between 11am and 4.30am. Join the museum for storytelling, songs, games and music workshops!

Children can even make their own peg doll or musical instrument.

Pitt Rivers Museum is free to all and open Tuesday to Sunday (and Bank Holiday Mondays) from 10am to 4.30pm, and on Mondays from 12 noon to 4.30pm.

The entrance to the Pitt Rivers Museum is through the Oxford University Museum Natural History (OUMNH) on Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW.

The Pitt Rivers’ entrance is at the far wall of the OUMNH. Visitors need to walk across the ground floor to reach it.

Please note that access to some evening events is via the Museum’s South Entrance in Robinson Close, off South Parks Road.

For more information, click here.

Local artist creates exhibition about historic Didcot railway

Posted by Emma Righton on Tuesday 12 April

Oxford is home to some amazingly creative people and you don’t have travel far to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

One local artist worth a look is painter Andrew Manson, whose Art and Industry: Didcot Railway Centre exhibition opens today at Cornerstone arts centre in Station Road, Didcot.

The free exhibition takes a modern look at the life and legacy of Didcot Railway Centre.

Andrew’s art focuses on the workings of the railway, the people that kept it going and the trains that draw the visitors in year after year.

The paintings, which are on display in the Gallery until May 15, take a glance towards Monet’s famous Gare St Lazare series, and the golden age of GWR Railway posters, whilst keeping Manson’s energetic and colourful style.

The exhibition sits within his 2016 body of work that focuses on Oxfrodshire’s industries and their individual histories that made Oxfrod what it is today.

Andrew will hold a talk about his exhibition and wider work on Tuesday, April 26 at 7pm. You can book your free place by calling the Cornerstone Box Office on 01235 515144.

This is a rare chance to see up close the rich and vivid work of this well known local artist, born and raised in Oxford. Artworks are for also for sale.

To find out more, click here. For more information about events at Cornerstone, click here.

Oxford Shopping Guide

Posted by Emma Righton on Wednesday 6 April

Central Oxford

The main shopping centre is The Clarendon Centre in Cornmarket Street featuring popular high street chains including Office, Zara and H&M.

The former Westgate Centre in Queen Street has been demolished to make way for a £440 million three-storey John Lewis store, five screen cinema, 70 new shops, 25 cafes and a range of restaurants.

The High Street specialises in high-end boutiques and antiques shops. The Victorian labyrinth that is the Covered Market, accessed via High Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street, is full of delicious cafes, traditional butchers, grocers and independent shops.

Nearby Broad Street is home to the famous Blackwell’s, the first ever Oxfam shop, art supply stores and Boswell’s, the city’s oldest independent department stores.

North Oxford

For something a bit more unusual head north to Summertown where you’ll find gorgeous high-end boutique Vanilla, health food shop and bakery Modern Baker and brand new bread and café chain Gail’s, as well as plenty of charity shops for bargain hunters.

For artisan pottery at the Oxford Ceramics Gallery and Illyria Pottery (watch out for the shop cat which likes to sleep in the biggest pot in the window) or a slim volume of Ginsberg head to the Albion Beatnik bookshop Jericho.

There you’ll also find Little Clarendon Street, off Walton Street, which as well as boutique shops and restaurants, it has one of the best ice-cream parlours in the city George & Davis – treat yourself after a hard day’s shopping!

East Oxford

Cowley Road isn’t just great for bars and restaurants – the busy street is great for unusual and unique clothing shops, as well as Fairtrade companies and Oxford’s first skate shop SS20.

Outside Oxford

Designer lovers won’t want to miss a visit to Bicester Village to pick up a bargain during their visit.

The Oracle in Reading is also just a 20 minute train ride away. There you will find all your usual chain stores as well as a cinema and restaurants.