How the University of Oxford destroyed one of the world’s great cities

Alexander Larman laments the decline and fall of the dreaming spires and their replacement by shuttered shops, sad cafés and mothballed pubs

TO THE WEST OF OXFORD, NOT VERY FAR from the railway station and in the oddly-named Fridesewide Square, lies a fascinating building. Dating from the Edwardian era, its primary claim to fame is that it is where the peerless Frank Cooper’s Oxford marmalade was first produced. Subsequently, it has served as everything from an antiques market to its most recent incarnation as a bar, restaurant and arts space, bringing a touch of bohemian civilisation to a part of Oxford that often seems to have been neglected by the aesthetic. (Anyone who has shuddered and shivered through the station — a 1970s monstrosity that was revamped into a 1990s monstrosity that is now being rebuilt again — will know exactly what I mean.) The Jam Factory, as it was appropriately known,…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2023

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