Key Changes in 2025

This annual roundup provides a snapshot of Abingdon’s changing town centre shop fronts. The map highlights key changes using colour codes:
Green: Vacant at the start of the year, now occupied.
Yellow: Business or name change.
Red: Occupied at the start of the year, now vacant.

Changes from 2007 to 2025
(Press on the year in the table below to see the larger picture for any year.)

Welcome Back
* Added Ingredients

Welcome to New Businesses
* Boots Hearing Care
* Cay Khe (Vietnamese Restaurant)

* Delicatessen Cafe
* Elite Barbers

* Gathering Space Cafe
* Habibi’s Lebanese Grill

Goodbye to Businesses we Lost

Another High Street bank, the Nat West Bank closed their branch last year.

The others lost businesses are:
* Abingdon Supermarket
* JHoots Pharmacy (although a notice in the window says the closure is temporary)
* Lounge Cafe (owners retired and replaced by another cafe)
* Pablo Lounge
* Pappy’s Back A Yard closed because they were under an unstable building. Perhaps it will return.
* Santina’s Grill

Change to Existing Businesses

W H Smith became T G Jones
Utopia Beauty Salon moved to West St Helen Street
Mezzah House and La Baguette moved in with Cafe Aroma

(let me know of any mistakes in this annual roundup)

Most of us in Abingdon woke this morning to frosted grass and icy puddles. But two of our bookshops have had snow.

At The Bookstore in Bury Street, winter has taken full hold of the window display. Snowdrifts, sparkling reindeer and hibernating creatures make it look as though a blizzard has blown through the shop.

At Mostly Books, on Stert Street, snow is falling. Their window features a painted scene celebrating ‘Tell Your Dog I Love Them’, created by the book’s own author-illustrator, Harriet Lowther who will be there on December 6th. Mostly Books often invite artists to create street art in their window. I wonder whether they ever replace the glass and sell the originals like Banksy’s.

Their blackboard also reminds us that the season of stories in warm corners is upon us.

Over the past year, three local businesses have been moving between premises. Mez House first joined Café Aroma in its High Street location; La Bag’tte moved into Mez House’s former premises; and more recently La Bag’tte has moved in with the other two.

Bringing three brands under one roof must reduce costs. It also means you can now pop in for coffee and a baguette during the day, and a Lebanese restaurant in the evening — all in the same premises.

Added Ingredients is moving back into its old home – bringing with it a wide range of wines and food.

Ove the past couple of years, the premises has been home to two different beer sellers, each running their own bar. The most recent, time-shared the space with Martin, who displayed and sold his photographs of Abingdon and other subjects.

Now Jill and Added Ingredients are back in the shop, selling wines and food once again – at least until the new year, possibly longer.