Clarion Weekend, 28 November 2025

Is this our Black Friday edition? Accidentally, perhaps so. Oxford has the most incredible independent retailers – so we've rounded up some festive inspiration if you're shopping over the weekend. And keep reading to the bottom of the newsletter for our roundup of Christmas markets this weekend. Shop local, people!

Shop local this Christmas

We love this city every day of the year, but at Christmas it is extra special. The Christmas lights; the way the frost sparkles on the Corallian limestone of the colleges; people from city, county, college and (much) further afield thronging the shops; pubs with log fires and mulled wine;

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A 39-year old man from the Guildford area has been arrested in connection with the Kidlington fly tip, following investigations by the Environment Agency and the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit. EA director Anna Burns called it “the first step in delivering justice for residents”. Waste crime specialist Phil Davies added: “A number of active lines of investigation are being pursued by specialist officers. We would ask that the public do not interfere with the waste on site as we continue to treat it as an active crime scene.”

MP Calum Miller, who hosted a site visit by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey this week, commented: “I welcome this development. It is essential that those criminals responsible are held to account. This must be accompanied by urgent steps to clear the site. An environmental catastrophe looms and the Government and Environment Agency must now deliver a full clean-up.”

Oxfordshire’s Fire & Rescue Service has been using thermal imaging cameras to assess potential fire risk. The EA says that “work continues with partners to look at options for removal and disposal of the waste”, but that as yet it cannot give a timeline for the work. The cost of removal has been estimated at £25m.

(Much press ink has been spilled over the rubbish tip, but our pick of the bunch is this long read by the New Statesman, which describes the site as “a huge pile of tax evasion”.)

Thames Water has submitted plans for its upgrade to Oxford Sewage Treatment works – but campaigners say sewage will continue to flow into the Thames.

In an early-stages planning application, the water company lists the works as “new secondary and final effluent treatment plant, new storm and balance tanks, new sludge management plant, an additional liquor treatment plant, and a tertiary solids removal plant”, plus supporting infrastructure at the site by Littlemore and Sandford-on-Thames.

The upgraded works are anticipated to come on stream by March 2030, at a total cost of more than £270m. In an October update, Thames Water says there will be a 38% capacity increase (‘Flow to Full Treatment’), with ammonia levels reduced by two-thirds and phosphorus by three-quarters. Preliminary work is already underway and the main contract has been awarded.

Oxford Rivers Improvement Campaign, however, says that an unpublicised downgrade means sewage will continue to overflow. Campaigner Mark Hull said:

“Thames Water announced plans in April 2024 for a larger expansion but retracted these this year for the smaller expansion. The critical assumptions that were changed in the model concern the future volume of sewage produced per person. In February 2025, Thames Water changed this from the long-standing projection of constant per capita water consumption, to assume a 20% reduction would occur over the next 18 years.”

ORIC says too that the Government target of “no more than ten sewage spills a year” is inappropriate. “Last year Oxford STW had five discharges lasting longer than a week, three of which lasted more than two weeks. Based on the 2024 average at Oxford STW, ten raw sewage discharges a year equates to two and a half weeks of non-stop raw sewage discharges a year.”

Oxford’s new Waterstones on Queen Street opened on Thursday, with books, cards, gifts including board games, and a downstairs cafe. It’s open until 8pm on weekdays and Saturdays, and from 11am to 5pm on Sundays. Your Clarion scribes have (regrettably!) been too busy putting together this newsletter to have a proper browse, so we’d love to know what you think of the new shop.

Around the city

• The £96m redevelopment of the former Debenhams at 1–12 Magdalen Street is expected to get underway in the spring, after contracts are awarded in the New Year. The Crown Estate has issued a tender for structural modifications to the building, which it says will become “a market leading multi-occupancy life science facility”. Demolition contractors BibbEgan have already cleared redundant plant from the roof and removed much of the store detritus.
• The ribbon has been cut on East Oxford Community Centre, marking the end of the construction phase of its development, a £5.9m project. Next door, the city council is building 12 energy-efficient flats for social rent, due for completion in the new year. The work included a full refurbishment of the original building (a former school) on the corner of Cowley Road and Princes Street, creating a new kitchen, upgraded toilets and showers, and four flexible community spaces. The redevelopment also saw the demolition of the former Chinese Community & Advice Centre and Fusion Arts buildings, replaced with a low-carbon, three-storey extension on the new centre. The Council says it is is working with the previous tenants to enable the groups to return. Cllr Linda Smith from Oxford City Council said: “This investment is more than bricks and mortar. It’s about investing in the future of this vibrant part of our city. We wanted to give East Oxford what it truly deserves, a modern, accessible, and sustainable space, both for now and into the future.”
• Oxford City Farm was broken into on Saturday night. Approximately £2,200 of pork (120kg) was stolen after three storage areas were forcibly entered. The meat was from two pigs carefully reared over the summer by the farm’s dedicated volunteers and staff.
• New signs will warn motorists about frogs and toads crossing from Risinghurst gardens to the CS Lewis Nature Reserve in spring. The Frog & Toad Patrol group has been given four warning signs by Oxford City Council, funded by local councillor Chewe Munkonge’s ward budget. Local volunteers help escort the frogs and toads to their breeding pond, sometimes with as many as 60 per night captured in buckets and moved to the reserve. On average 10,000 amphibians are found dead on roads across Britain in breeding season.
• The former children’s home at Maltfield House, Northway, is to be redeveloped as 15 new homes for social rent. Oxford City Council has appointed a local contractor and will apply for planning permission early next year. Cllr Linda Smith said: “This development will provide new homes for the people on our housing register and alleviate pressure on temporary accommodation.”
• Seven brand new operating theatres at the John Radcliffe Hospital have moved closer to opening, with staff gathering to mark the finishing of the outside of the building this week. The first phase of the new Surgical Elective Centre is due to open next summer. Jason Dorsett, for Oxford University Hospitals, said the new building would “enable us to tackle waiting lists and accommodate the growing population not only in Oxfordshire, but in the wider area too”.

Around the county

• A 70-room “boutique roadside destination” motel with diner is proposed for the Shores Green A40 junction on the edge of Witney. The junction is currently being rebuilt to have west-facing slip roads at a cost of £26m. A planning application to West Oxfordshire District Council argues that Witney is expanding eastwards, and that the diner would “bring an under-used parcel of land into productive use”. Artists’ impressions are reminiscent of Mollie’s Motel & Diner on the A420. In a bizarre subplot, one town councillor posting on Facebook has already linked the development to KFC, referencing a Carterton/Witney feud on the town’s most trusted news source, the Witney Gitzette.
• Watercourses on the Blenheim Estate are to be managed in a “wilder, more biodiverse” way. The estate is moving away from dredging to maintain an open channel, and towards a regime where wood and vegetation is retained to create habitats. Blenheim says: “The aim is to have three or four areas of gravel along every kilometre of our river for fish to spawn, with more vegetation growing in the river to provide habitat for fish and other river species.” Work is being carried out in conjunction with the Cotswold Rivers Trust.
• A new office and lab space development has opened at London Oxford Airport (aka Kidlington Airfield). Phase 1 of the £48m Aerox project joins a new hangar building which will open next month. Businesses at the site include Airbus Helicopters and hydrogen fuel startup OXCCU.
• Free food caddy bags are available from the county’s libraries in anticipation of extra food waste over Christmas. Oxfordshire County Council says that “if all the food waste that is thrown away was recycled, it would save an estimated £3m a year”.
• Oxfordshire County Council says it has cleared nearly 70,000 drainage gullies since April, as part of a upweighted programme targeting cleaning every gully in the county in 12 months. Drain cleaning was previously carried out on a 4-year cycle, with high priority drains cleaned more regularly. OCC says that while gully clearing is important in reducing surface water, no drainage system is designed to cope with instances of extreme rainfall like Oxfordshire experienced in September 2024, when a month’s worth of rain fell in just 36 hours. Cllr Andrew Gant for OCC said: “We recognised the need to improve drainage. I’m pleased that we are on schedule to complete this ambitious drainage improvement programme. It is a huge task but one that will make a big difference to our communities as extreme weather becomes more frequent.” We looked at the wider challenge of what causes flooding in Oxfordshire in a long read last year – and, separately, what you can do in your own back or front gardens to reduce flood risk.
• Residents in the Bartons, north Oxfordshire, are withdrawing their fundraiser to buy the village pub after a private buyer made an offer. The Bartons Community Benefit Society says: “In order that the pub can be reopened as soon as possible, we have decided not to oppose the sale.” As a designated Asset of Community Value, the pub could have had its sale delayed for six months while the community gets funds together. The villagers had so far raised £77,500 from a target of £210,000. The purchaser, Tony O’Sullivan, is currently redeveloping a village pub in Todenham near Moreton-in-Marsh.
• The Government has published its 2025 results for Oxfordshire's two bathing water sites. Wallingford Beach has improved from 'poor' to 'sufficient' (meeting the minimum standards of Bathing Water Regulations), while Wolvercote Mill Stream remains as 'poor'. Aggie Hodges, Bathing Water Development Officer for Thames21, said: “With only one other inland river site rated above ‘Poor’ this year, the result highlights the significant challenges facing England’s rivers and the importance of this progress on the Thames at Wallingford.”
• Thames Water has lifted its hosepipe ban, which has been in place since July. Farmoor Reservoir is now nearly full after recent rains. Nevil Muncaster, Thames Water: “The recent rain has helped restore groundwater levels in the region, which were recovering after a record-breaking summer. We’re still encouraging customers to continue to use water wisely so water resources recharge ready for spring and summer.”
• The telephone exchange in Deddington, north Oxfordshire, has been switched off in the very first of 4,600 shutdowns planned by [BT] Openreach. Phone lines in the village have all been upgraded to digital full fibre served by the Banbury exchange, with the copper wire network turned off. Deddington was one of three pilot locations, with the project running since 2020. Openreach says it can take up to seven years to migrate to digital; James Lilley called the village “a proof of concept, demonstrating our ability to decommission legacy exchanges safely, securely and collaboratively”. Openreach will vacate the building once the equipment has been removed in the next few months. The old analogue installation will be reused as spares for other exchanges or for resale.
• New ‘studio spaces’ have opened at the Didcot Wave leisure centre with changing rooms set to be revamped early next year. We mention this mostly because splashing around at Didcot Wave is absolutely a Mini Clarion favourite and nowhere near as well known in Oxford as it deserves to be.
• The development boom around Yarnton and Begbroke continues with an application for 58 new homes beside the Turnpike pub on the A44, with a mix of apartments and two- to four-bedroom houses. The site nestles in a gap between the railway and Oxford University’s upcoming Begbroke development. Developers Nicholas King Homes observe that the site is on both a bus route to central Oxford, and a National Cycle Route “linking to Oxfordshire, Stoke on Trent, Birmingham, Chester, Bromsgrove, Colwyn Bay, Bangor and Stratford upon Avon” #longdistancecommuting
• The ACE Centre nursery school in Chipping Norton could be closed. The nursery is one of just seven council-run nursery schools in Oxfordshire. Oxfordshire County Council says that falling pupil numbers, with 23 children on roll at present, have put “the long-term viability of the nursery” at risk – but stresses that “at this stage no decisions have been taken”.

Walking, cycling and boating

• 70 volunteer navvies from across Britain descended on Grove last weekend to clear vegetation from a historic flight of locks on the long-closed Wilts & Berks Canal (which, despite the name, is partly in today’s Oxfordshire). Two locks were fully cleared and a start made on a third, with the abutments of a historic lift-bridge also unearthed. The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust has a target date of 2050 to “bring boats back to Wantage”.
• Cargo bike operator Pedal & Post is introducing a new fleet to the city’s roads. It says the new Minimal e-bikes are “smooth, incredibly stable, and built to handle the stop-start nature of city deliveries – perfect for navigating Oxford’s narrow lanes, busy High Street, and everything in between”. The company, which describes the new bikes as “the cargo bike to potentially rival the white van”, has also dropped a hint about “a new national client to join us shortly”.
• Oxford Pedestrians Association is celebrating the installation of 13 new public benches on key urban walking routes, from Botley Road to Blackbird Leys, using a bequest from Dr Keith Holly of the Ramblers. OxPA plans to add plaques with literary quotations about walking.
• 24 staff at Cheney School took place in an e-bike pilot this summer to replace car journeys with cycling – and in an engaging Facebook reel, Oxford City Council says “they loved it”. They clocked up over 1000 miles in total. Commissioned by the Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership (ZCOP), the scheme was delivered by Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (the artists formerly known as Sustrans) and supported by Bainton Bikes.

Charity begins at home

• “Nobody should go hungry in Oxford this winter,” say Oxford Mutual Aid as they launch their seasonal crowdfunder with a target of £5,000. The community foodbank says it had 250 emergency parcel requests in November, “numbers not seen for the past three years… Without additional resources of increased food and hours, we won't be able to meet this demand. We've already had to close our phone lines several times over the past month due to a lack of supplies and staffing.”

Books

• Last week we featured the latest album by a South Oxfordshire district councillor. This week we have the new book by an Oxford City councillor, Alex Powell. Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration “critically examines the experiences of LGBTIQA+ people within the UK asylum system in the context of a global backlash against both migrant and LGBTIQA+ rights”.
• The Oxford Pictures is a retrospective collection of photographs by Paddy Summerfield, who snapped Oxford students in the summer terms from 1968 to 1978. The Eye of Photography blog says “his images primarily express the insecurities and pain of youth”.

This weekend

• It’s Advent Sunday, the start of the church year and an opportunity to bathe in some glorious music (‘Wachet auf’ is obligatory, though we are intrigued as to what the little trebles are looking at from 0m45…). Many of the city’s churches and college chapels will have either an Advent Carol Service or an Advent Evensong. Some of the services are restricted to college members only, but Merton and Christ Church both have Saturday services for allcomers, and you can live-stream Christ Church Cathedral’s Sunday service from 5.30pm.
• Or if you want to fast-forward past the Advent music and gorge on Christmas favourites, Oxford Harmonic Choir have a splendid programme of lesser-known works at the Sheldonian on Saturday (£). We love Gustav Holst’s amiably bonkers Christmas Day – a medley of well-known Christmas carols, several of them sung at the same time.
• Started your Christmas shopping yet? Here’s our pick of the Christmas markets:
  • The Christmas Market on Broad Street continues to the end of the month.
  • Tonight is also the Christmas Market at Flo’s, ‘the Place in the (Florence) Park’.
  • Then on Saturday comes the annual Green Fair at the Town Hall, a long-established annual market with crafts, campaigns, and Christmas presents.
  • Also on Saturday is Indie Oxford’s Christmas Market at Tap Social in Botley – “pizza and drinks, kids’ activities, and of course, independent market stalls!”.
  • Finally, there’s an Arts & Crafts Christmas Market at West Oxford Community Centre on Botley Road, both Saturday and Sunday.
• Abingdon’s Christmas Extravaganza on Saturday is much more than a market: music, dancing, funfair, and donkeys.
• Creation Theatre’s Christmas show is always unmissable. This year they’re putting on their own take on The Nutcracker “with a generous helping of nutty humour”. From Saturday at the North Wall, continuing until 3 Jan (£).
• Amateur Drag Showcase (£), Friday, The Oxford Cinema & Cafe. The Green Carnations launch their zine with a lipsync battle. Afterparty at Plush.
• YWMP Open Day, Saturday, The Nest, Little Clarendon Street. Visit the new inclusive music space for experimental singing, Team Drum, food from Silvie & Pet Gat and live music from Bowtell & Barbarella.

This week

• Seven Coptic Paintings, Mon 1/Tue 2 Dec, St Barnabas Church. Pop-up exhibition of the late Egyptian artist Mounir Ekdawi.
• C.S. Lewis's Oxford, Tue 2 Dec, Rewley House. Free talk by Simon Horobin for the Oxford Civic Society.
• Letterlocking, Wed 3 Dec, Weston Library. Learn how Elizabethan spies made their letters tamper-proof (free, booking required).
• The Austens at Oxford, 3-8 Dec, St John's College. Did you know Jane Austen went to school in Oxford?

Oxfordshire’s independent media

• Hybrid Magazine from Oxford Brookes profiles IRL Oxford, helping people socialise and make friends as a non-student in Oxford, in a digital world.
• Little Oxplorers has quirky gift ideas for children on their Facebook page, trust us, if you're stuck on kids’ Christmas pressies, this one is golden...
• The Oxford Sausage visits a Christmas tree farm in Marsh Baldon - are you feeling festive yet?
• Bitten Oxford reviews Lula's Ethiopian in the Covered Market.
• Ox in a Box reckons the 'best ever scones' can be found on George Street. Which is a bold claim that surely requires testing.
• Cherwell has surveyed which college drinks the most. The results may surprise you.
• The Oxford Blue is provoked by the sight of an academic scrolling through YouTube Shorts at dinner to ask “are adults the real screenagers?”.
• Daily Info reviews Dick Whittington at the Oxford Playhouse.

Notes from Clarion HQ

Our (admittedly fanciful) dreams of opening a Clarion Club House on Turl Street have been thwarted as the former Turl Street Kitchen (and before that, the QI Club, and before even that, Oxford’s first Indian restaurant) has been taken off the market. Still, we did enjoy the “kitchen confessions” in The Critic by a one-time TSK chef. The author argues “Politicos should do a tour of duty behind the stove. The burns are more than worth it.”

Many readers will be putting up their Christmas trees this weekend. Social media has a long-standing hashtag of #treebybike. If you’ve managed to get your tree home by bike, or even wheelbarrow, do tag us in your pictures. We’ll post the best in a gallery. (No bike? South Oxford Adventure Playground will deliver trees to you by pedal power!)

We hope you have a fantastic weekend – let us know if you use our shopping article to find any treasures. See you on Tuesday for the midweek newsletter.