Strolling along the High Street towards Magdalen College you will come across the prestigious Oxford University Press bookshop, three ultramarine-windows wide between an estate agents and a clothing store. The OUP Bookshop has been associated with the site in the High St. since 1872 and the shop is popular with students, lecturers and tourists alike, providing Dictionaries, and educational,academic, and scholarly books.
The window displays are a fun and eye-catching asset to the shop, dispelling the view that it is a purely serious establishment, and indeed the endearing Oxford University sock puppets have gained quite a following. They appear in many guises including rowers, artists, Children in Need fundraisers and most recently, burlesque characters with feathers in their sock heads.
Stepping inside, a peaceful calm descends: a pleasant mix of a relaxed atmosphere with an executive feel. You leave the bustling street for a clean and orderly environment and the well-presented staff are ready to welcome you into the impeccably displayed store. Quiet, air-conditioned and tidy, with plump seats on every floor, it’s quite possible to peruse the shelves in a timeless daze and with in excess of 30,000 books in stock at any one time you’re guaranteed to find the text you are looking for.
On entering, the highly esteemed and infamous dictionaries are readily available and easy to find on the left, and the popular and iconic Classics are displayed neatly in the next section. The Oxford Dictionary range is the most commonly anticipated feature for Oxford’s bookshop visitors and often creates a unique backdrop for that memorable photograph. As you continue through the shop, stepping lightly over the pristine carpet between clean, glossy wooden shelves, the stairs lead you down to the basement rooms which house the academic coursework texts. This space is available for Oxford University lecturers to use as a showroom, and this partnership creates an invaluable resource for the University and means the bookshop is the sole stockist of all coursework titles. Then there is the Arts and Literature section with a small corner devoted to music, currently under development to include sheet music and exam material. Other comprehensive sections of work include English Language and Science and Medicine.
The Science and Medicine section is one of the most popular areas of the shop and is host to the winning final piece by the student awarded with the Pirye Prize. Each year, the OUP award the prestigious prize to a Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art student and this year the film by Istvan Prem is available to view until October 2010.
The children’s area is situated in the oldest part of the building on the ground floor, a quaint little corner with a den-like quality which lends itself perfectly to the purpose. The grownups amongst us have to stoop to avoid the low ceiling, but unlike our smaller companions we get a closer look at the beautiful wooden beams stretching above. Amongst the events hosted at the shop, there are regular story telling afternoons for the kids with visits from well-known authors.
The Oxford University Press bookshop is open 7 days a week. Check the website regularly for up to date offers and events. September hosts the 'Back to School & University' promotions as well as support for the University of Oxford Alumni Weekend.
