A Harry Potter retailer appears to have shut its doors on a bustling shopping street in Oxford.
In 2024, Canadian investor Roy Sebag, who heads Goldmoney Properties, acquired the Clarendon Centre from Lothbury Asset Management.
Since the previous year, the complex has remained shuttered, with businesses such as TK Maxx relocating to the Westgate shopping centre or finding other premises.
McDonald’s has shifted to fresh premises in the centre of Cornmarket, and Wizard’s Emporium beside it, which launched two years prior, now appears to be closed.
When the outlet, previously a mobile phone boutique, launched in 2024, the manager indicated it was being operated by his relatives who had come from Dubai.
The shutdown leaves House of Wonders as the sole dedicated Harry Potter retailer still trading on Cornmarket, despite other establishments in the city centre selling Harry Potter merchandise.
Plans to convert William Baker House, the former Waterstones premises, into a Harry Potter attraction overseen by Warner Brothers failed to materialise, with the space instead anticipated to be taken by Mountain Warehouse.
The outdoor apparel company filed a planning submission with the local authority in January detailing its intentions, though no launch date has been announced.
GP (Goldmoney Properties) Clarendon Square Ltd has lodged a planning application with the city council to revamp the Clarendon Centre, incorporating a new public square.
According to the submission, the plans involve refurbishing the existing buildings by opening up the existing thoroughfares, removing roof coverings, and creating a large 41×42 metre landscaped square in the centre. Quinlan Terry CBE has designed new classical design stone facades for the square and the existing elevations, with key elevations facing Cornmarket Street and Queen Street.
The new square is anticipated to decrease the floor space designated for retail units.
The application further explained that the plans reuse much of the existing internal structure of the buildings while re-facing the facades to deliver a set of buildings more in keeping with the built heritage of Oxford.
City councillor Susanna Pressel previously expressed support for the most recent Clarendon Centre proposals.
She noted that every college has internal quads which are lovely green and peaceful places, but they are not accessible to most people. She described Bonn Square as attractive but insufficient. According to her, this development would provide a very welcome peaceful green space open to all. She expressed that as people walk along Cornmarket Street and Queen Street, they would have a glimpse of beautiful trees and benches to tempt them in, with new open passages leading to the space. She mentioned that the developers are even planning a water feature in the central square, which would surely be a great draw, and that they have described how this would provide a sense of tranquillity.