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The large and handsome building probably dating from the 1730s stood on the corner of Catte Street and Holywell Street until it was demolished in 1882 to make way for the old Indian Institute.

Its address was 34 Broad Street, and it was in Holywell parish.

 

It was a coffee house from c.1762 to 1841 which also sold alcohol.

 

Left: Drawing of Seal’s coffee house published in 1837 in Memorials of Oxford

 

Below: Photograph of the former coffee house taken in 1880 just before it was demolished
(Historic England HT03210)

Philip Bliss, writing in 1848, said that Seal's Coffee House was built “out of the surplus material from Blenheim by sir John Vanburgh [sic]”, which had already been stated in the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1835. Memorials of Oxford (1837) said:

The house at the corner of Broad street, known for many years as Seal’s Coffee House, was built by sir John Vanburgh [sic], the architect of the Clarendon, which on a small scale it closely resembles in style. It was erected on the site of a previous one; which, with two or three others adjoining to it, was built by the university on land granted to them for the purpose by Merton college.

It is not, however, certain that Vanbrugh, who completed Blenheim Palace in 1734, designed this building, which is believed to have been built in the 1730s as a private house for Alderman John Knibb. He died on 17 February 1754 and was buried at St Cross Church three days later. Jackson’s Oxford Journal announced that his house “near the printing-house” (the present Clarendon Building) would be sold.

In about 1762 this corner building became a well-known Oxford coffee house patronized by Hertford, Wadham, and New College nearby.

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Baggs’s Coffee House at 34 Broad Street (c.1762–1781)

The precursor: An earlier coffee house on a different site in New College Lane: Johnson’s/Hadley’s/Kinnersley’s/Baggs’s Coffee House (c.1730–c.1862) Johnson’s Coffee House was already in existence in New College Lane in the 1730s. By 1753 the eponymous Johnson had been succeeded by Thomas Hadley, who remained its proprietor until he moved to Henley in 1759. It was then taken over by Mrs Martha Kinnersley. Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 13 October 1759 reported that Mrs Kinnersley, having dissolved her partnership with John Young at the King’s Arms in the High Street, had taken a coffee house (formerly Hadley’s) in New College Lane. It appears that Mrs Kinnersley had been recently widowed, as the will of a George Kinnersley, victualler of Oxford, was proved that same year. On 18 November 1760 Mrs Martha Kinnersley married again at St Mary Magdalen church: her new husband was the breeches maker John Baggs of that parish. She was still at the New College Lane coffee house at the time of the marriage (and was thus described as a widow of St Peter-in-the-East parish rather than Holywell). After Mrs Kinnersley’s marriage the coffee house in New College Lane changed its name from Kinnersley’s to Baggs’s. On 27 March 1761 Parson Woodforde describes Baggs’s as being “in our lane”, showing that Mr & Mrs Baggs had not yet moved to the new premises on the corner of Holywell and Catte Street.

John & Martha Baggs moved out of the above coffee house in New College Lane and took over this coffee house at 34 Broad Street on the corner of Holywell in about 1762.

Parson Woodforde records numerous bills that he paid at Baggs’s coffee house, mostly for wine sent round to his rooms. On 15 January 1763 Woodforde wrote, "I sent for some Chocolate from the C. House, which Baggs holds, and he sent me word he would not send me any. N.B. shall have no more dealings there." He evidently did not keep to his decision, as on 26 July 1763 he wrote:“Paid Baggs at the Coff: House (a very impudent fellow)…. NB I do not intend dealing with him again very soon for his Impudence to me yesterday morning.”

On 1 November 1763 (just three months after this “impudence”, and three years after his marriage to Mrs Kinnersley), John Baggs died. He was buried in St Cross churchyard the next day, and his death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal described him as a “breeches maker and keeper of the coffee house at the corner of Holywell”. This shows that John Baggs and his wife Martha (formerly Mrs Kinnersley) must have transferred their business from New College Lane to 34 Broad Street at some point between Woodforde’s diary entry of 27 March 1761 and Baggs’s death on 1 November 1763.

Baggs left the leasehold coffee house at 34 Broad Street to his wife, Mrs Martha Baggs, and thereafter to his cousin Eleanor.

The 1772 Survey of Oxford (taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771) gives the measurement of the Broad Street frontage of the coffee house (described as being in the possession of Mrs Baggs) as 9 yards 0 feet and 3 inches, and its longer side-length along Holywell Street as 14 yards 1 foot and 11 inches.

Martha Baggs appears to have died at some time between 1772 and 1781: there is no one of that name buried at St Cross Church, but one buried at Nettlebed on 19 February 1778/9.

On 30 June 1781 “Mrs Baggs” (probably Miss Eleanor Baggs) put an advertisement inserted in Jackson’s Oxford Journal stating that Baggs’s “old-accustomed coffee house” on the corner of Holywell was to let. Miss Eleanor Baggs’s death at the age of 83 was announced seven years later in the edition of 15 October 1788: she was then living opposite Balliol College.

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Master Goodwin’s Coffee House at 34 Broad Street (1781–1805)

On 23 October 1781 Benjamin Goodwin married Mary Rooke, both of Holywell parish, and it is likely that he had bought the lease of the coffee house from Miss Eleanor Baggs earlier that year. It was now known as Master Goodwin's coffee house

Benjamin Goodwin died twelve years after his marriage on 23 November 1793. The Universal British Directory of 1794 lists his widow Mary Goodwin as the coffee-house keeper here.

Mary Goodwin’s died on 20 April 1805 and was buried at Holywell Church four days later. Her death was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 27 April 1805: “On Saturday last died, after a lingering illness, Mrs. Goodwin, who has been for several years [in fact at least eleven] Mistress of the Coffee House, in Holywell.” An announcement in that newspaper on 24 August 1805, headed “Goodwin’s Coffee House”, referred to the estate of the late Mrs Goodwin.

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Seal’s Coffee House at 34 Broad Street (1805–1840)

In April 1805 William Seal, who had been a waiter at Goodwin’s Coffee House, took the business over. He is likely to be the fourth son of Stephen Seal, who was admitted free on 26 September 1800. He inserted the following notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 27 April 1805:

On 23 July 1805 William Seal married Miss Mary Tuckey (the youngest daughter of the late Mr William Tuckey of Standlake) in the bride’s parish church of St Peter-in-the-East. The marriage was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 27 July 1805. Just three years after the marriage, on 22 August 1808, William Seal died: the notice in the newspaper of 27 August 1808 reads: “On Monday last died, aged 30, Mr. William Seal, Coffee-house keeper, in Broad-street.” He was buried in St Cross churchyard.

On 15 October 1808, Mrs Mary Seal inserted an announcement in the newspaper that she intended to carry on business as usual at Seal’s Coffee House in Holywell, and she ran it on her own for sixteen years.

In 1824 Mrs Seal married again at the age of 44: the announcement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 11 September that year reads: “On the 22d of August was married, in London, Mr. Giles, upholder and auctioneer, to Mrs. Seal, both of this city”.

Mary Seal’s new husband, the upholsterer James Giles, is henceforth listed in directories as the proprietor of the coffee house, but it retained its old name of Seal’s. He held auctions on the premises from 1830, and by 1839 had opened a wine & spirit shop in it.

Mrs Seal does not appear to have had any children. James Giles, however, had a son of the same name who on 19 January 1833 married Charlotte Seal, at Holywell Church. (Charlotte, who had been baptised at Holywell Church on 1 August 1806, was the daughter of Thomas Seal – who was probably Mrs Mary Giles’s brother-in-law – and his wife Mary). James & Charlotte Giles had two children baptised at St Martin’s Church: James Seal Giles on 20 November 1833 (buried at Holywell church the next year) and Charlotte on 7 October 1835 (buried at Holywell Church on 24 June 1841). James Giles junior is variously described as an upholsterer and an auctioneer. They then moved the High Street, and had four children baptised at All Saints Church: Edward and Mary on 13 February 1838 (Edward died after one day), Elizabeth in 1840 (died at the age of three months), and Emma in 1841. James died at the age of 33 and Charlotte at the age of 38, and they were buried at Holywell Church on 23 December 1841 and 2 December 1844 respectively.

Mrs Mary Giles, formerly Mrs Seal, née Tuckey died at the age of 60 and was buried at Holywell Church on 18 May 1840. Soon after her death her husband James Giles appears to have given up the coffee house and gone to live with his son in Reading. He died there four years later at the age of 67, and was buried at All Saints Church in Oxford.

On 16 January 1841 Jackson’s Oxford Journal advertised a forthcoming auction on the premises, describing all the items in detail and stating that “The whole must be cleared off  by the 23d, as the premises are disposed of”.

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Charles James Adams at the former coffee house at 34 Broad Street (1841–1843)

Charles James Adams, an auctioneer, upholsterer, dealer, and chapman, who had gone bankrupt in May 1839, took on the lease of Seal's Coffee House early in 1841, and according to directories he appears to have let out part of the premises to the surgeon John Freeman Wood.

The 1841 census shows Charles Adams, who was then aged 54 and described as an innkeeper, living on the premises with his wife Sarah Adams, née Roads, and a young unmarried lady of about 20 called Sarah Knibbs.

Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 9 September 1843 describes a lottery held at “Mr. Adams’s (late Seale’s [sic] Coffee-house)”. Later that same year Adams went bankrupt again, and the following advertisement appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 16 December:

By the time of the 1851 census Adams was Master of the Oxford Workhouse

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Private house at 34 Broad Street (c.1843–1882)

1840s to 1858: John Freeman Wood and his wife Juliana Lisetta Wood, née Arntz

John Freeman Wood was born in the Precincts of Canterbury Cathedral on 19 November 1797, the son of John George Wood and Margaretta Maria, nee Freeman. He entered the King’s School, Canterbury in May 1806.

He appears to have started practising medicine at St Pancras in London, and on 27 August 1825 at St Pancras Church he married Juliana Lisetta Arntz, who was born in Germany. Their eldest son John George Wood was baptised at St Pancras Church in 1827.

The family then moved to Oxford, where on 13 June 1828 Wood was matriculated at the University as a surgeon and apothecary. They first lived in Oriel Street (then known as St Mary Hall Lane), and their next five children were born there and baptised at St Mary the Virgin Church: Martha (1829), Juliana Lisetta (1830), Margaretta Maria (1831), Rosa (1832, buried there seven months later), and Harvey (1833).

Wood then moved his practice to 26 Holywell Street, and his next six children were baptised at Holywell Church: Anne Rosa (1835, buried there six months later), Frederick (1836), Frances (1837), Emma (1839), Thomas James (1841), and Charles (1846).

In 1841 he took over part of 34 Broad Street for his surgery, and by the mid-1840s he was in complete occupation, using it both as his private residence and surgery. The 1851 census shows him occupying both 34 Broad Street and 41 Holywell Street around the corner: he and his wife Juliana were living at 34 Broad Street with eight of his ten surviving children, a young assistant doctor (Henry Leman), and two servants.

Wood died at 34 Broad Street at the age of 60 on 25 December 1857 and was buried at St Cross Church on 31 December 1857. An auction of Wood's furniture was advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 27 February 1858: this included the furniture of seven sleeping rooms, two drawing rooms, a dining room, and surgery, plus two pianofortes and kitchen furniture and utensils.

c.1858 to 1872: William Fishburn Donkin and his wife Harriet

William Fishburn Donkin was born at Fishburn, York in 1814. He was a Fellow of University College from 1836 to 1843 and Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford from 1842.

On 25 June 1844 at St Peter-in-the-East Church, Donkin married Harriet Hawtrey, and they had five children: William Fishburn Donkin (born 1845), Arthur Edward Donkin (1847), Alice (1849), Alfred Donkin (1850), and Edward Hawtrey Donkin (1853).

In about 1858 he moved from New College Lane around the corner to 34 Broad Street. The 1861 census records “All gone away” next to No. 34, but it is unclear whether Donkin was just on holiday with his wife and three sons, or if the house was between the two tenancies.

Professor Donkin died of consumption at 34 Broad Street at the age of 55 on 15 November 1869: his funeral was at St Cross Church and he was buried at Holywell Cemetery. His widow Harriet remained at 34 Broad Street, but at the time of the 1871 census she was away and the only person at home was her eldest son, William Fishburn Donkin junior (25), a Bachelor of Arts who was teaching chemistry, and two servants (a nursemaid and cook). Mrs Donkin ceased to live in this house in about 1872.

1880 to 1881: Joseph Prestwich and his wife Grace

After being empty in the mid-1870s, in 1880 the house was let out (presumably on a very short lease) to Joseph Prestwich, Professor of Geology. He and his wife Grace were here on the night of the 1881 census, together with a cook, parlourmaid, and housemaid.

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Demolition

The former coffee house at 34 Broad Street was demolished in 1882 along with No. 33 next door to the south to make way for the first phase of the Indian Institute. Messrs Wyatt & Son announced the sale of the building materials in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 20 May 1882, stating that the site had to be cleared by 3 June.