60-62 Covered Market, Oxford

James Mackintosh Architect have been appointed to prepare a heritage statement to support the conversion of the 60-62 Covered Market into a new bar - The Market tap. Our heritage statement identified what elements were important in and around the unit in question to inform proposals for change.

Tap Social Movement

Tap Social Movement is an award-winning Oxford-based social enterprise which was established in 2016 to create training and employment opportunities for those who need them, in particular ex-offenders. They create training and employment opportunities both in their own brewery, taproom and events business and by placing candidates with other employers in hospitality and other industries.

Tap Social Movement are strongly rooted in the local community in Oxford, and recently opened a new community café bar and kitchen on the Abingdon Road (on the site of the White House pub) to complement their two existing Oxford sites (the community space and microbrewery in Botley, and their main brewing site in Kennington). This opportunity to do business right in the heart of Oxford’s historic centre, and to help the City Council and the existing tenants of the Covered Market to spearhead the revitalisation of the market into the evening, is a perfect fit for their existing ventures within the wider city.

Whilst the Covered Market is a fantastic asset for the people of Oxford (as well as to visitors), Tap Social recognise that there is scope for extending its appeal to a broader cross-section of the city’s population. As with their existing venues, Tap Social will ensure the atmosphere and events timetable at the Covered Market will be inclusive and appealing to people of all ages and backgrounds. A diverse and exciting programme of events, centred around live music incorporating other performance art including theatre, comedy, film, poetry and speaking events is planned for the Covered Market underpinned by Tap Social’s unique culture of rehabilitation, inclusive employment and the bringing together of people from different walks of life. Their ambition is for the Covered Market to become one of the most popular shared social spaces in the City Centre, both in the day time and into the evening.

Context

The Oxford Covered Market has a rich history and reputation as a centre of excellence for independent traders selling fresh food and provisions. The fresh meat offer is renowned and has long anchored the market. In recent years the market trade has diversified and the mix now contains a limited catering offer, other fresh food and a wide variety of clothing and accessories. On many levels, though, the market has not evolved or improved. This lack of change has led to it slipping behind the demands and expectations of customers and was highlighted in a report commissioned by Oxford City Council: Future Retail Strategy and Business Plan (2013) by The Retail Group, which identified catering as a massive missed opportunity for the market and a much more effective anchor component of the offer.

Unit 60-62 (Former Hedges) is located on the intersection between Avenue 2 and the Cross Central Avenue. It’s main elevation faces the Golden Cross entrance with a broader than usual open foreground. The cast iron section of the roof here projects over the northern end of avenues 1 & 2 with the underside of the pitched slate roof tiles visible. There is a large metal glazed lantern with a pitched slate roof above the western side of the Central Avenue which runs west/east and steps northward’s along avenue 2. The eastern half of the Central cross avenue is covered by radial King post trusses with braces and struts. The shops fronting the south side of the Central Avenue have splayed doorways to match those to the north. Between units 61 and 81 are two low level windows with Crown glass in the left hand window. The right window glass has been painted. A number of valued historic features are visible in this area of the Market, including the Market clock that add to the historic interest and character of the space. Over the years various forms of lighting have been used within the Market: the units themselves are lit individually with some signage now illuminated. Particularly effective is Pieminster’s use of ambient, task and accent lighting externally and internally.

The former Hedges Butcher’s site has an array of hanging bars on both elevations used previously to display their goods: high level steel bars make an important contribution to the functional character of the Market; and cast iron tiered bars (of unknown provenance and age) hang on the outside of the units (currently painted bright red) and galvanised modern versions are within that are part of the modern shop fittings. Further examples of these projecting metal bars can be found above shopfronts along Avenue 2 and 3 and in the Central Avenue. In some instances the ironwork has been used to fix new sign boards and external lighting, which has varying levels of success with some being clearly harmful, concealing views of the glazed gallery and timberwork above. A number of air conditioning units have also been fixed behind ironwork or above the fascia board or even within the awning area which is unsightly. A shallow tiled hip roof awning with a narrow eaves fascia on both elevations of the application site currently obscures part of the timber panelling above the openings and the architrave which appears to be common to the other units in this avenue.

History

The Covered Market was first opened on the 1st of November 1774. It was designed by John Gwynne as a replacement for butcher’s stalls, predominantly, that needed to be removed from the streets to make space for traffic after The Oxford Mileways Act 1771 was passed. This Act aided in contributing to modern Oxford’s distinctive wide streets – such as Broad Street and High Street in particular. Once the Covered Market had been set up, the sale of meat, fish, poultry etc. outside the market was to be made illegal.

John Gwynn’s plan of 1774 illustrates that he designed the market as two freestanding pavilions with a central north-south walkway. The market committee obtained a clause in a further Act in 1781 forbidding the sale of butter, eggs, apples, cherries and other fruit outside the market. The influx of trades caused by this Act brought a need for expansion, which is known to have taken place in a piecemeal fashion in the 1790’s. Malcolm Graham (The Building of Oxford Covered Market, Oxoniensia, 1979) described the physicality of the Market in some detail using Market Committee Minute Books, summarised as follows: From the south or High Street front, three avenues beneath the Parade led into the market. The forty butchers’ shops, built in groups of ten and dissected by open avenues, stood immediately to the north. The shops were of wooden construction with lath and plaster fixed between the timber framing on stone foundations. The roofs were of Stonesfield slates, and a stone colonnade surrounded each block of shops formalising the layout. The shops and stalls further north were in two blocks of similar construction. Beyond them was an open area for fishermen, gardeners and sellers of assorted goods. At the north end of the market a high wall was pierced by three gates, giving access to and from Jesus College Lane, now Market Street.

In 1834-40 the Market was enlarged, adding the ‘New Market’, designed by Thomas Wyatt the Younger. Following a national trend to enclose Market halls, Wyatt wanted to cover his new stalls and insisted on constructing an iron roof on stone piers, which were cast by Dewer’s foundry, London in 1839. This west end section is now the earliest surviving part of the roof.

Later in the 19th Century the market was enlarged again and the roof was extended to enclose the remaining parts of the Market. Subsequent sections of the roof were in timber. Most of the market had been remodelled by the end of the 19th Century, and all that remains of John Gwynne’s work is the front range facing High Street. The Covered Market today consists of two storeys plus a basement. The Market has four longitudinal avenues running north to south between entrances from Market Street and covered walkways leading to High Street. The aisles are crossed by three transverse avenues running east to west in a grid pattern with ranges of shop units of differing size, all covered by iron and timber roofs of different phases and construction types. A new entrance at the west side of Central Avenue through the Golden Cross was formed in 1986.

Although now legally protected by designation, the Covered Market was not always appreciated by town planners. Thomas Sharp, an eminent town-planning consultant commissioned by Oxford City Council in the post-war period complained of the lack of proper access arrangements to the Market in ‘Oxford Replanned’ (1948): ‘A daily example of what happens when there are no proper arrangements of this kind occurs at the High Street entrances to the Market - a gloomy, congested building which houses the whole of the central retail shops for meat (and most of those for fish and vegetables). Here not only do standing vehicles add to High Street’s congestion, but the carrying of bloody carcasses across crowded pavements does not increase their pleasantness. It is no wonder that the opinion is now widely held that the Market should be removed from this position.’

Fortunately this was not a view that translated into action and the Market remained in place to be admired by the architectural critic, first Chairman of Oxford Civic Society and Oxford Mail columnist ‘Adytum’, James Stevens Curl who described it as: ‘One shopping area that presents its scale and qualities admirably is the Covered Market, a remarkably fine Victorian structure’. (The Erosion of Oxford)

MARKET HALLS

Markets were the main source of food and other goods from earliest times until the twentieth century. Historically, markets were held in streets or market squares, but were a constant source of strife for burgh authorities who sought to control the activities which went on during market days. A solution was sought by holding markets within an enclosed space.  This attempt to civilise the selling of goods started in the later 18th century but gained momentum during the 19th century when authorities across the country constructed elegant and elaborate market halls which were statements of the importance of their locality and trading prowess.

 “In a market hall, the movements and behaviour of traders and shoppers could be closely controlled, and extraneous activities excluded. Unlike the shambles and market houses of the past, a market hall could accommodate every species of trader. It established new standards of hygiene, with washable surfaces, a plentiful supply of water and even ice houses for fishmongers. The provision of gas lighting and natural ventilation facilitated marketing at all times of the day and in all weathers, although heating was considered inadvisable.”

Morrison (2004: 109)