Objects of Use

Oxford

The best kind of hardware shop

Objects of Use sits on Market Street in central Oxford, a minute or two from the Radcliffe Camera and the old Covered Market, and it is one of those shops you go into for nothing in particular and leave having quietly fallen for a broom. Hazel Rattigan and Alexis Dexter started it in 2008, first in Shropshire and then here, on the simple idea that the things we handle every day ought to be well considered, made to last, and a pleasure to use. The result is a modern-day hardware store: household tools conscientiously sourced from around the world, arranged with real care.

What they stock are what they call vernacular objects, everyday things shaped by local materials and long tradition rather than fashion. Handmade brushes and brooms, artisan pottery, enamelware and good knives, natural-bristle everything, stationery, textiles and kitchen tools you did not know you wanted until you held one. Nothing is throwaway, and much of it is beautiful in the plainest, most useful way. It is a lovely half hour on a wet Oxford afternoon, and a good place to find a present that will still be going strong in twenty years.

A quick sense of what to expect:

• Made to lastEverything is chosen for how well it is made and how well it works, from natural-bristle brushes to hand-forged tools, sourced from makers who still do things properly.
• Vernacular objectsTraditional, unshowy household things from around the world, shaped by local materials and craft rather than trend, and all the better for it.
• Perfect for presentsThe sort of shop where a broom, a bar of soap or a wooden spoon becomes a genuinely lovely gift. Hard to leave empty-handed.
• Right in the centreOn Market Street, steps from the Covered Market, the Bodleian and the colleges, so it slots easily into a wider day in Oxford.

Getting there from the cottage

Oxford is around forty minutes from Well Cottage by car, though the city itself is best left on the edge: the park-and-ride sites make the centre far easier than hunting for a space, and Market Street is a short walk in from any of them. Objects of Use makes a natural pairing with the Covered Market next door for lunch, or with a morning at the Ashmolean, so we tend to fold it into a wider day out rather than a trip on its own. Opening hours are on their website, and it is worth a look before you set off.

“You go in for nothing and come out having discovered you needed a particular Japanese kitchen brush your whole life. It is the rare shop that makes ordinary, useful things feel like small treasures.”

Visit the official site →

Also nearby

• Oxford Covered Market · Market · next door
• Ashmolean Museum · Museum · Oxford
• Bodleian Library · Library · Oxford
• Pitt Rivers Museum · Museum · Oxford
• Museum of Natural History · Museum · Oxford