Christopher and Sukey opened Local Roots in East St Helen Street in May 2008. They gave us seasonal vegetable boxes, local art and craft, a kids club called Seedlings. They helped us think local. It was a friendly place to drink coffee and read the newspaper.

They are closing today, Christmas Eve, at 4pm, for the final time.

Their shop was inspirational. It is a great shame it has not worked out. They are just not able to carry on in the current economic climate. In two years time it might be quite different but they cannot take that risk.

There is a trophy in the window of Patisserie Pascal to mark their winning of the best window on Extravaganza evening.

Mostly Books took second place this year.

If I had been at all involved in the judging I would have given a prize for the roaring fire in the window of the Nursery Shop. It uses a VDU screen with fire surround.

Best window could have gone to this residence in East St Helen Street.

One thing is clear, The Fitzharris Arms has been already sold to Tesco, who plan to turn it into a Supermarket. The Herald had the ‘Fury over Pub Sale to Tesco‘ story this morning.

The Fitz was built in 1952 along with the surrounding houses.  So it serves a large area with no other nearby pubs.  Local people – many of them elderly – depend on their local pub for their social lives.  A social group of elderly residents meets every two weeks at the Fitz, and their Christmas Party was planned for the day the pub is to close.

Also worth noting is that  Tesco own the One Stop supermarket just down the Wootton Road.  So are they planning to have two shops so close together? They did buy the Fox and Hounds pub on the Abingdon Road in Oxford and it has remained derelict since 2007.

A For Sale sign has also appeared over another Greene King pub in the town centre: The Plough.

The Plough re-opened in July after being closed from the start of the year.

Those two pubs may be just the start. There are rumours of other Greene King pubs being sold off.

(Greene King got a majority stake in the Abingdon based Morland Brewery, and all it’s pubs, in 1999. )