Bicester Village

Bicester Village is an outlet shopping centre on the outskirts of Bicester, a town in Oxfordshire, England. It is owned by Value Retail plc.

The shopping centre has about 131 stores and is located just off the main roundabout which brings the A41 into Bicester. In 2001, it was able to charge stores the highest rental of any comparable shopping centre in the UK, and as of 2015 it attracts over 6 million visitors a year.

Expansion

On the 17 April 2015 Cherwell Council approved plans to demolish the nearby existing Tesco store and for construction of a further 28 retail units and an extra 519 parking spaces. A new Park & Ride and major road improvements, funded by the centre's owners, were also announced. This is hoped to create around 3,500 new jobs in Bicester Village.

Public transport links

The centre is served by Bicester Village railway station which has a regular direct connection to London Marylebone and Oxford Parkway, provided by Chiltern Railways. (This station was formerly known as Bicester Town). This service is scheduled to be extended to Oxford railway station in 2016, and to Milton Keynes Central and Bedford from 2019.

Bicester

Coordinates: 51°54′N 1°09′W / 51.90°N 1.15°W / 51.90; -1.15

Bicester (ⁱ/ˈbɪstə/ BIS-tər) is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.

This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire. Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and Banbury. It has good road links to Oxford, Kidlington, Brackley, Buckingham, Aylesbury and Witney, as well as a rail service, consisting of two railway stations; Bicester North and Bicester Village.

In 2014 the Government announced that Bicester would become a new garden city to accommodate the demand of commuters outside London. Up to 13,000 new homes will be built.

History

Early history

Bicester has a history going back to Saxon times. The name Bicester, which has been in use since the mid 17th century, derives from earlier forms including Berncestre, Burencestre, Burcester, Biciter and Bissiter; the John Speed map of 1610 shows four alternative spellings and historian G. H. Dannatt found 45 variants in wills of the 17th and 18th centuries.