Bicester Market Square

Market Square is the old trading heart of Bicester, an open space in the town centre where the king granted a market in 1239. Round it stand shops and houses with 27 Grade II list entries between them, the most striking being No. 47 of 1698. The Friday market still trades on Sheep Street, beside it.

The story of Market Square

William de Longespée obtained a royal grant of a market for his Bicester manor in 1239, the Victoria County History says, and a three-day fair round St Edburg's feast in July was licensed in 1252. A Monday market and another fair were granted in 1377, and a Friday market in 1441. The square was the general market place, and Sheep Street the market for cattle and sheep, until the stock market moved off the street in 1910.

The county history records a Town House at the south end of the market place before 1599, repaired in 1622, and an order of 1605 that nobody was to build on the market place. The town hall and the Shambles, the butchers' covered stalls, came down in 1826, and the bell cast for them in 1732 by Edward Hemins of the Bicester foundry now hangs at the entrance to Garth Park.

Trade had hard years. Smallpox in 1704 and a fire in 1724 hit the market badly, and the cholera of 1832 brought trade to a standstill, in the county history's account. Our history of Bicester tells the longer story.

What to look for

Walk round the square looking above the shopfronts, which are mostly twentieth century. Look for:

• No. 47, a substantial town house dated 1698 on an oval panel in its tower, rendered over a timber frame, with a four-storey central tower, three oval windows at the top, an ogee roof, a ball finial and a weathervane. It stands with Nos. 49 and 50 on an island in the square, and is listed Grade II
• No. 30, a chequer-brick house and shop dated 1751 on its central datestone, probably partly older, with two dormers in a steep roof
• The run of other listed shops and houses round the square, from No. 2 to No. 52, all listed Grade II

Changes on the way

Cherwell District Council plans to remake the square. The concept design its executive approved in September 2025 turns the B4100 ring road into a two-way road, makes the road into the square from it a pedestrian area with seating and planting, adds crossings, and moves the main taxi rank to the Sainsbury's area near the library, leaving a pick-up and drop-off point here. The budget is £5.131 million. In September 2025 the council said construction would start in summer 2026, but when we checked in November 2026 its pages gave no start date and said detailed designs were still being refined. The council says parking will stay available throughout the works.

Visiting

The square is open at all times and free. Come on a Friday for the market, which Cherwell District Council lists on Sheep Street from 9am to 4.30pm, with about 20 stalls run by the Bicester Market Association: fruit and vegetables, hot food, cakes, cards and picture framing.

Getting there

Bicester North station is about half a mile north and Bicester Village station about a quarter of a mile south, by our measurement on the map. For car parks, see parking in Bicester, and for trains and buses getting to Bicester.

Nearby

St Edburg's Church is a few minutes west, and Garth Park a few minutes east along Launton Road. Bicester Village is about half a mile south.