Gort Scott is leading a team working with Oxford City Council to develop a masterplan to rejuvenate the city’s historic Covered Market. A public consultation on masterplan proposals is currently under way.

The Grade II listed Covered Market opened in 1774 and has evolved alongside Oxford, accommodating the competing requirements of individual traders as well as complex servicing and logistics requirements. Its avenues have accumulated disparate changes that obscure the historic fabric and make the market hard to find and navigate around.

Gort Scott hopes to fully realise Oxford Covered Market’s potential with an ambitious plan that will renew the building’s historic fabric and create new spaces for businesses. Proposals include changing Market Street into a pedestrian-priority street, works to improve entrances and strategic retrofitting to create a large new flexible communal area off Market Street. These new flexible spaces will add to what the Market provides and improve wayfinding from Cornmarket and Turl Streets, aiming to increase customer access and draw. Oxford Covered Market will become the community’s everyday hub, and a natural space for evening dining and events.

“We passionately believe in markets as places of innovation and the original business incubator. We have worked closely with the Oxford City Council team, traders and neighbouring stakeholders to shape a masterplan to secure the Covered Market’s long-term future.” Susie Hyden, Associate Director at Gort Scott.

Oxford Covered Market presents an exciting opportunity for the community to guide the development of a new kind of truly open and friendly amenity for Oxford, accessible to everyone and open for all.