Category: Out and About

Banbury Definitely Belongs at the Tourism Table

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I recently saw mention of English Tourism Week (March 14-23) approaching, so it seemed like the right time to shine a spotlight on Banbury, a town that is, in my opinion, unfairly overlooked by the tourism sector.

Banbury Old Town map

While nearby tourism heavyweights Oxford, Warwick, and Stratford-upon-Avon frequently feature on travel itineraries of visitors from around the world, Banbury does not. And that’s a shame because it genuinely does something to offer or both tourists – and tourism investors. It has historical points of interest and a few cultural gems of its own alongside both strategic accessibility and affordability that makes it an ideal destination for travellers and those who serve them.

We used to joke that the perfect tagline for the town would be ‘Banbury: You can get there from here.’ And it was a sort of joke. But it was also a serious point about why Banbury should be on more people’s travel radar when it comes to exploring the English countryside and towns. After all, not everything is London.

Now, you may be thinking that as someone who lives in Banbury and writes about Banbury, I may not be wholly objective about the place. I’m not, I suppose. But neither am I making something out of nothing.

The Oxford Canal links the town centre to Spiceball and Longford parks.

A Hub of History and Innovation

Banbury’s tourism appeal lies its industrial heritage, perfectly preserved at sites like Tooley’s Boatyard. The Banbury Museum & Gallery, with its engaging exhibitions and educational programs, tells the story of a town that has been at the crossroads of English history for centuries. Indeed, the town’s strategic importance dates back to Roman times, with the ancient Salt Way cutting through what is now Banbury. These attractions don’t just preserve history – they make it accessible and relevant to modern visitors.

Tooley’s Boatyard has one of the oldest working dry docks on the Inland Waterways, working continuously since 1778.

There are architectural gems like the Globe Room in the Ye Olde Reine Deer where Oliver Cromwell used to sit in judgement during Royalist trials or Lampreys (below).

Strategic Location, Maximum Impact

Banbury’s central location makes it an ideal base for exploring some of England’s premier attractions without paying premier attraction prices for hotels. Stay at a hotel or B&B in Banbury and you are less than an hour – often less than 30 minutes – from a wealth of locations serving a wide range of interests.

  • The internationally renowned Bicester Village, offering luxury shopping experiences, lies just 15 minutes away by train.
  • A 20 minute train ride to Oxford transport history buffs to a location bound to satisfy all the facts, dates, trivia and ‘walking the ground’ experiences one could want. More interested in film and TV tourism? Oxford has got you covered there too.
  •  If castles, gardens and stately homes are your thing, the area’s National Trust and English Heritage sites provide excellent examples of architectural history and landscape design.
  • For automotive enthusiasts, both the British Motor Museum and Silverstone Museum are within easy reach, offering world-class exhibits that celebrate Britain’s motorsport heritage. More on the historic motoring landscape that surrounds Banbury can be found on an earlier Banburian post.
Vintage vehicle on display at Banbury Festival of Motoring.

Culinary and Cultural Vibrancy

After a long day of sight-seeing, what could be better than getting back to town and relaxing with an excellent meal. The town’s dining scene punches well above its weight, with award-winning restaurants offering cuisine from across the globe. This culinary diversity may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you hear ‘Banbury’ – maybe you think Banbury cake – but the truth is, Banbury’s food scene is modern, eclectic and diverse.

The Mill Arts Centre features music, theatre, comedy and dance performances all year round. St. Mary’s Church, in addition to being historically significant, also serves as another cultural hub in town – – especially when it comes to music with their Festival Singers performing at many events in town, hosting the Banbury Early Music Festival as well as partnering with the Banbury Choral Society and Banbury Symphony Orchestra.  Then there is the annual calendar of events – a notably robust calendar of events that call the town centre home – such as food fairs, heritage events and music festivals ensures there’s always something new for visitors to discover.

A tasty standout from Lock29 – the banh mi sandwich from Nori Shed.

The annual calendar of events such as food fairs, heritage events and music festivals creates year-round appeal, ensuring there’s always something new for visitors to discover.

Visitor Economy Investment Opportunities

For stakeholders in the hospitality industry and visitor services sector, Banbury represents an opportunity to invest in a destination that offers:

  • Established transport links with excellent rail and road connections – 3 train lines operate through Banbury Train station with frequent trains providing access to
    • London in just over an hour;
    • 20 minutes to Oxford;
    • 25 minutes to Warwick;
    • 45 minutes to Birmingham.
  • A diverse range of attractions appealing to different market segments;
  • Proximity to major tourist destinations without their saturation and costs;
  • Year-round appeal through seasonal events and indoor attractions.

The Case for Increased Tourism Focus

Destinations like Banbury exemplify the sector’s potential for growth and innovation. The town’s unique combination of historical significance, strategic location, and modern amenities – including significant recent upgrades to the train station and the canal-side development including Lock29 and The Light – makes it an ideal candidate for further tourism investment and promotion.

With major tourist attractions being proposed for nearby Bicester (the £300 million theme park from Puy du Fou and the Great Wolf development, for example) just strengthen Banbury’s position as an affordable, convenient location from which to explore the wider landscape.

For tourism developers, Banbury offers the rare opportunity to invest in a destination that already has strong fundamentals but hasn’t yet reached its full potential. Its position between major tourist hubs creates natural visitor flow, while its own attractions provide compelling reasons for extended stays.

The Light – cinema, eateries, bowling, mini golf, climbing wall and karaoke – on the canal.

Looking Forward

As the visitor economy continues to evolve, destinations that can offer authentic experiences while serving as strategic bases for wider exploration will become increasingly valuable. So, in advance of English Tourism Week 2025, we invite everyone to take a closer look at what Banbury – and towns like it, towns slightly in the shadow of nearby attention-grabbing neighbors – can offer to the future of English tourism.

Whether through investment in tourism infrastructure, promotion of local attractions, or development of new visitor experiences,  Banbury is primed to step forward and play a larger role in England’s tourism landscape.

The Banbury Cross surrounded by spring blooms.

Banbury 2024 – End of Year Round Up

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I’ve been stupidly busy of late and not able to post as much as I would like. But I’ll definitely try and do better in 2025. I am more active on the Banburian Facebook page (sometimes easier to share things on the fly there) so you can always follow me there as well to make sure you don’t miss anything.

In the meantime. Just a list of things I have noted of late and which are relevant to our collective local interests. Continue reading “Banbury 2024 – End of Year Round Up” →

Another Empty Article About Empties

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Recently, we’ve been treated to yet another ‘Banbury nothing but empty shops’ style piece in the regional media. You know the ones – a collection of photos of empty shops, dire declarations that the town is in an economic death spiral despite Banbury steadfastly (and repeatedly over the years) refusing to accommodate them by dying as described.


Behold all these locals stubbornly enjoying the marketplace and once again failing to take heed that Banbury is supposed to be a ghost town.

Continue reading “Another Empty Article About Empties” →

What’s Next for Banbury, the 2021 Edition

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By now, I hope you realise that I really do think Banbury is the bee’s knees, that I enjoy living here and enjoy sharing the best of Banbury with as many people as I can. This is not to say that I think it’s perfect. It is most assuredly not. There are lots of things I would do if I were ‘Empress for a day’, and things I’d like to see happen as the town continues to evolve. Here are a few:

Lines and Links

The link between the train station and town centre needs both aesthetic and safety improvements. That junction is an absolute disaster traffic-wise and a few reminder lines wouldn’t go amiss. Also, a nice journey for pedestrians would be nice. Is there nothing that can be done with the abandoned building right at the front?

Boost Bike Use

Genuine, joined up, enforceable cycling infrastructure – advisory lanes here and there are only paying lip service to the idea of getting more people to travel by bike; the bare minimum to meet some ‘pin the tail on the central gov guideline’ target. I’d like to see the powers that be in Banbury commit to building a better way to get around. and stop tap dancing around the edges.

Improve the View

Masking of the bins overlooking the canal. I’ve mentioned this before. The canal was always a nice little walk and now – with all this investment in place, to a point that it has got an actual NAME (Castle Quay Waterfront) – wouldn’t it be nice to change the view from the museum cafe (excitingly soon to be Pavement Coffee’s brick and mortar debut) from retail bins to something green? I can understand not wanting to shell out lots of dosh on an ongoing maintenance basis, but even a few fake hedge panels would go a long way to improving the view of the mall’s bin-heavy backside.

Take a Seat

Updated, socially-arranged seating in Market Square – if it included some sort of charging bench and greenery, even better. I understand that during various events, these might need to be moved but mobility and flexibility are increasingly common features of the latest modular street furniture. And what an improvement it would be over the random scatter of a handful of benches in a large and (on non-market days) largely empty space. Towns all over the country are investing in their public spaces and the popularity of the outdoor area of Lock29 and the tables from Market Square vendors on market days show people LIKE coming together outside. The marketplace has so much potential and it’s being wasted due to what I suspect is a bit of ‘we’ve always done it this way.’

I love these planter benches used in this picture from Poland but there are lots of options these days – from simply repurposed sleeper benches (not unlike those along the back of the new Lidl) to full on ‘parklettes.’

Tidy up

When town centre spaces close up and aren’t taken up again for a long time, they can start to look scruffy. I get that scruffy is not a deal-breaker but after an even longer time, scruffy becomes downright derelict, pulls the area down visually, and dampens the enthusiasm for being in the town centre. Have you seen what has become of the former site of JT Davies? That whole entrance into the town centre from Bolton Street Car Park is an embarrassment – cluttered, overgrown, visually chaotic. And Bridge Street, while much improved at the Crown House end with long term empties now filled, features what I think is the single most unfortunate mess in a prominent location:

Final Thoughts

Other serious renovations have helped too – work at The Grand has started to reveal the potential on Broad Street. But it doesn’t have to be a major renovation to make a major impact,

We’ve seen how much even a quick clean can improve things: at the old Moss Bros building where the windows have become a sort of gallery, the repainting and dressing the windows of the old sandwich shop space on Parsons Street, the creation of the garden spot on Church Lane (which, OK I wish was better maintained and people could be trusted not to trash it but baby steps are steps too) – all of these were a long time coming but very welcome. And – in my view – the actions with the broadest most long-term value undertaken by the BID since it came into being.

All of which is just my opinion, obvs, but all of which I think would dovetail nicely with some of the positive changes we’re already seeing and could encourage more of those positive changes – the bigger, more costly ones – to come even faster.

Banbury Market Place – Past, Present, Future

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Banbury Market Place. Cornhill. The centre of the town centre. Let’s talk about the market since it seems to obsess so many nay sayers.

The Market’s Past

Yes, 50 years ago the market was ENORMOUS, and people came from miles around to do their weekly shopping there.

That’s lovely. It’s also the past and not coming back. We all know why – even the naysayers. Shops have changed and shoppers have changed. Even if the market of 50 years ago suddenly re-appeared, I dare say even the nay sayers would be at Tesco, Sainsburys or on Amazon. They’d then switch their whinge to ‘well, we want free parking’ or demand to know why they cannot also have an ASDA.

An aside: it never fails to stagger me how someone can complain that the town has nothing in it and also demand an ASDA. Like, an ASDA is going to help boost anything else. ASDA sucks the retail oxygen out of the room, people.

The Market’s Present

Is there anything to the nay sayers naying? Sure. The market dwindled over time. And the decision to make half that areas into a parking lot was probably not the best long-term decision ever made. But it is what it is – and unless the political will exists to reverse that position (and I would be shocked if it did), we deal with the hand we are dealt. So, yes, it dwindled and damned near seemed to need life support as recently as 3 years ago. But that’s been changing – management was taken back, there are more stalls than there have been in several years, Special rates or free spaces are offered to community organisations, etc.

If you haven’t seen that or don’t acknowledge that, you need to accept that nothing that ever happens in Banbury will ever match the version in your memory. And I can’t do anything about that, but I don’t have to let your clouded version of Banbury stand unchallenged.

The Market’s Future

Could the market be better – SURE. The Deddington Farmers’ Market is superb and should stand as an example of what could be. Warwick’s is quite impressive as well. So, there are nearby examples to aspire to. But if people don’t support what is there – and there’s more than there was even relatively recently and some of it is outstanding – no new vendors will see the value in coming on.

If you want a thriving, varied, buzzing market – get out and support it. By a brownie from Tess’s or some cheese from Curds & Whey (the black truffle Comte – I think it was a Comte – is OUT OF THIS WORLD). Get a coffee and take a seat over with The Coffee Guys. Or just spend a few pounds at one of the other ever-growing selection of stalls.

They showed up. Now it’s your turn.