Easter Greetings

It is Thursday morning so I head to the open-air market on Gloucester Green. At the heart of today’s city this is a square of flats and shops sandwiched between two very different thoroughfares. You approach it from either Beaumont Street, with its grand houses, world-famous Ashmolean Museum and Randolph Hotel, or George Street, the place to go for a night out at the New Theatre or Odeon, and ending in one of the many chain restaurants and bars. The first thing you notice are the stalls with their bright blue and yellow awnings that stay up Wednesday to Saturday nowadays. I worry that the burgeoning number of street food outlets that have taken up residence might eventually swamp the place entirely.

But for the moment Thursday is still the day for those of us who like to potter and chat over the assortment of bric-a-brac, books and second-hand clothing on offer. I’m such a frequent visitor I’m on first name terms with many of the traders. Peter, now in his eighties, who has furnished most of Oxford’s front doors with brass knockers and letterboxes has traded here since the current market was set up in 1990; Jean who trawls the car boot sales for bargains and does a lovely job of reupholstering battered old stools; Christian, from whose van spills out the latest house clearance; and Diana who comes with boxes of colourful ribbons, threads, and buttons as well as the most tasteful of vintage clothing and crockery.  A Hawaiian cocktail bar made from bamboo is my favourite purchase to date. A threadbare dog on wheels comes a close second.

Gloucester Green is not very green these days. And the medieval Gloucester College founded by the Benedictine monks of Gloucester Abbey in 1283, whose land this once was, became Worcester College in the 18^th century. Like so much of Oxford the name is all that is left of what went before. Friars Entry, a narrow alleyway that leads from the market to Magdalen Street was once the only direct route for the Carmelite White Friars who set up home roughly where The Oxford Playhouse is today, up to the Northgate and into the town centre. A white robed ghostly figure apparently still haunts the place.

Gloucester Green has had a colourful history since then. It was a bowling green in the 1600’s, and then laid out as a public square. It was also a place of execution. There’s a plaque pinned to a wall high up behind the bike racks, commemorating Private Biggs and Private Piggen, who were shot here like their Leveller colleagues in Burford, for their part in the mutiny of the Oxford garrison in September 1649 by troops loyal to Oliver Cromwell.  In the 1700’s it became the site for the city gaol. From 1835-1932 the cattle market was held at Gloucester Green before it became the central bus station, a grey dismal place I spent many an hour in my teenage years (coaches to London and the airports still depart from the west.)

So it seems fitting that today it remains a gathering place for visitors to the city, a melting pot of different tradespeople selling their wares, and a destination for locals like me who come to celebrate the rich diversity of its offerings. I do hope it hangs on in there. Today I am particularly pleased. I have come see Dave and Jean, an eccentric friendly pair who sell everything for either £1 or 20 pence. There doesn’t seem to be any logic as to which of these prices they decide on, and though they call out that these bargains are ‘for one day only’, it’s the same every week.  Rummaging through a box of old photographs I come across a bag of Victorian and Edwardian Easter postcards with personal messages written neatly on the back in ink. They became a popular seasonal missive after the halfpenny postcard rate was introduced in 1870. I buy the lot. Perfect pieces of nostalgia for this time of year, with messages of renewal and hope. Some use the religious imagery of crosses, others are sentimental featuring rabbits and children hatching out of eggs or holding spring flowers, many are downright bizarre. I particularly like the naked megalomanic twins wielding hammers. They might even make it on to my list of favourite purchases. Happy Easter everyone.

Some of the cards below are examples of Easter cards I found online at bbc.co.uk