The Tuck Shop

the tuck shop provides for all your convenience needs. whether its merely a sweet snack to consume during a revision break or a more substantial pasty-type meal, you’ll find what you need here. staff are super-friendly!

I was so excited when I first saw the Tuck Shop on a visit to Oxford before I lived here. The name conjures up all sorts of images of cakes and sweet treats. Remember those crispy cakes you got at school? Yum. Sadly, as Twinkle Star says, this doesn’t really fit the image. It does sell chocolate, sweets and crisps, which is definitely 'tuck’, but you can get it cheaper in Smiths or Sainsburys and it’s a far cry from old-fashioned sweets in jars. I recommend the Alternative Tuck Shop, which isn’t the hippie sort of place I first imagined (I thought it would be healthy tuck - a real oxymoron if ever I heard one!), but does lovely, if expensive, cakes and snacks.

Unfortunately, the Tuck Shop doesn’t live up to its lovely olde worlde name. It is your bulk standard corner shop selling a few magazines, chocolate bars, crisps and really overpriced sandwiches in packets. Its conveniently located if you’re in the Bodley or the History Library and fancy a pack of ready salted or a magazine. But if you’re looking for good food then go elsewhere. The alternative tuck shop down the road sells proper cakes and sandwiches and there are cafes galore on Broad Street.