Blackwell’s Art & Poster Shop

Blackwell’s Art & Poster Shop is a bit of a mixed bag. The upstairs section for books specifically on art and art history is very comprehensive and you should be able to find what you’re looking for. There’s an opportunity to look at some huge, beautiful, very expensive books on architecture, which are conveniently laid out to be browsed through on the balcony. There is also a reasonable crafts section upstairs.
The downstairs area is more of a muddle, with graphic design, cinema, typography, photography, and graphic novels all stuffed in together at one end. While offering a small selection of books on all of these subjects, the range in each is extremely limited. Although it’s the best place for graphic novels in Oxford in terms of selection and unusual choices, it’s no substitute for a dedicated comics shop.
It is a good place to buy greetings cards, diaries, calendars, and other paper goods, as there’s a good range of these down the length of the downstairs area, and the ever-​popular £3 mini prints of classic paintings are a great way of quickly and cheaply brightening up a new room. Yes, a few thousand Oxford students will probably have the same ones, but they’re great quality prints considering the price and there are also cheap frames available to complement them. It’s not actually very good for posters, as most of the ones they have are very expensive and look like they’ve been hanging around for an awfully long time.

A good size art and poster shop in the heart of Oxford. I am a huge fan of cinema, so I headed straight to the film section, but was disappointed to find all of two shelves of random books on film and a handful of actor biographies. I must admit I expected more. The same could be said about the photography section. Again, a rather limited selection of books, all selling at very high prices. I wonder how bookshops like this manage to survive the online competition.
This store is really a place to come browsing for art posters, prints and cards. One can find some good ideas for presents here. Still, if you are looking for a large range of books, head elsewhere.

This is the sort of shop I thought I’d love in Oxford, but I think it’s almost too stylish for me. It’s got a good range of giant posters, prints and cards, some of which are the generic art posters you’d expect to find (Warhole, Dali, The Scream), whilst others are more unusual and thought-​provoking. If you’re after a poster for your room, you could do a lot worse, although they’re expensive compared to normal posters. The framed or mounted posters cost a lot more, but it’s often worth buying the poster separately and getting it mounted elsewhere, as they’re pretty generic sizes. The cards are great framed in their own right.

Beautiful books about beautiful things, plus posters, cards and the sort of notebooks that people buy thinking they will inspire them to write great works (leather bound with lovely paper).
I like the craft section which includes books and magazines with trendy Japanese and American designs so you can knit or sew something your children won’t be ashamed to receive.