37 Cornmarket Street: Sizzled Greek restaurant
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These premises have always been in the parish of St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church. The present building dates from c.1860. At the first-floor level is a cast-iron electric lamp bracket with a dragon finial dating from c.1895.
The original building on this site was known as Shoemakers' Hall. In 1596 Oxford City Council granted the Cordwainers a lease of the Town Wall against their older tenement here “to build their house, upon which the eves to drop into the Town Ditch and to build their stairs and chimneys in the same wall”. By 1604 they had rebuilt their premises and pulled down the portion of the city wall against which the house had been built, erecting a new wall four feet to the north. (For later leases up to 1771, see H. E. Salter, Oxford City Properties, pp. 248–9.)
The house adjoined the Bocardo gaol, which was pulled down in September 1771. The Commissioners under the Paving Act also ordered that the house here be demolished, and it was rebuilt further back.
Tubb family, grocers, tea-dealers, and tallow chandlers (by 1772 to 1854)
Michael Tubb appears to have been baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 2 October 1736, the son of Robert Tubb.
By 1764 he was a grocer & tallow chandler in St Michael's parish, probably on this site. The North Gate of the city and the Bocardo gaol were both pulled down in September 1771, but it is possible that his adjacent old shop survived. The 1772 Survey of Oxford lists a building in about the position of 37 Cornmarket Street which it names as Bocardo, with a frontage of 7yds 1ft 4in and states that it was occupied by a Mr Tubb.
Michael Tubb took on George Lumbart and Stephen Barrett as apprentice grocers in 1769 and 1775 respectively, and then on 1 November 1780 he took on his own son William Tubb (15). In 1783 the directory listing for the former shop on this site was “Tubb, Michael, Grocer, Tea-dealer, and Tallow-chandler”. but soon after William reached the age of 21 in April 1785 the business was renamed Michael Tubb & Son, and in September 1785 William took on his first apprentice. \on 20 July 1786 Michael & William Tubb, described as grocers & tallow chandlers, took out a Sun Alliance insurance policy (520490) on these premises.
Michael Tubb died ten years later on 18 January 1795 and was described in his death notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal as “'Grocer and Tea Dealer, in the Corn Market”. William inserted a notice in that newspaper on 31 January 1795 stating that he intended to carry on the business as before.
William Tubb died on 9 June 1824. He had no sons, and his will he left his freehold and leasehold business premises to his wife Elizabeth, with the intention that she should receive the clear rents of £120 p.a. “for which the said freehold Messuage and certain parts of the said Leasehold Premises have been agreed to be let to [his unmarried nephew] Thomas William Tubb during her life clear of all deductions whatsoever“. (Ann died in 1832.) Thomas William Tubb is duly described in various directories between 1830 and 1852 as a grocer here at 37 Cornmarket Street (and a tallow chandler as well in 1830).
On 1 April 1854 Thomas William Tubb announced that he had relinquished his business here at 37 Cornmarket Street to Charles Underhill.
Charles Underhill's grocery shop (1854–1924)
Charles Underhill also announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 1 April 1854 that as soon as alterations to these premises were complete he would move his shop here and close his former business at 11 Beaumont Street
Underhill duly opened his shop on 10 June 1854, but it is unclear whether he initially lived over the premises: certainly by early 1858 he was living with his family at Diamond Villa, Summertown.
Less than five years after Charles Underhill began his occupation, this property was advertised for sale in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 8 January 1859:
All those very commanding FREEHOLD BUSINESS PREMISES, No. 37, CORN MARKET-STREET, at the corner of New Inn Hall-street, Oxford, comprising, on the ground floor, a very attractive Shop, with plate glass front, counting house, and a private entrance from New Inn Hall-street; on the first floor, sitting room and two bed rooms, five bed rooms on the second floor; a capital cellar in the basement, water closet, and other conveniences.
Underhill is likely to bought the premises that he rented at this point, and in about 1860 the shop was pulled down and the present one erected.
At the time of the 1861 census his 18-year-old grocer son Charles Maitland Underhill and his 17-year-old daughter lived here on the premises with a housekeeper. The 1891 census shows this shop as unoccupied.
For pictures of the inside and outside of Underhill’s shop in 1891, and a circular letter and catalogue for 1893, see Michael L. Turner & David Vaisey, Oxford Shops and Shopping, pp. 24–5, photographs 44–48.
On 14 September 1895 Jackson's Oxford Journal reported that Charles Underhill was attempting to get a county vote in the city in relation to these premises, and he stated that
he was the freeholder of No. 37 Cornmarket-street, and had been for many years. It was a grocer's shop in the basement and a residence for his son above. He (Mr. Underhill) had nothing to do with the shop; his two sons were the proprietors of the business and the tenants of the house, and had been so since Lady Day, 1894. They then purchased the business and took the house on a lease of fourteen years.
Charles Underhill died in 1903, and his son Charles Maitland Underhill continued to run the business here at 37 Cornmarket until his own death on 20 January 1924. He had no sons, and the business closed down.
View of Cornmarket showing Underhill's shop in 1907 (Historic England HT10439):
Since 1928
Dunn & Co Hatters had moved into the shop by 1928, with the Royal Insurance Company upstairs. In 1960 the latter took over the whole building, and remained until the 1980s, when the Woolwich Building Society moved in.
Occupants of 37 Cornmarket Street listed in directories etc |
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By 1772 By 1780 1785 By 1792 1839–1854 |
William Tubb, Grocer & Tallow Chandler (died 1803) Michael Tubb (died 1795) Michael Tubb & Son William Tubb, son of Michael Tubb (died 1824 without sons) Thomas William Tubb, William Tubb's nephew, Grocer |
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1854–1924 |
Charles Underhill, Grocer and general provision merchant |
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1925–1958 |
Dunn & Co., Hatters + Royal Insurance Co. Ltd (1928) |
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1960–1980+ |
Royal Insurance Co. Ltd. (later Royal Insurance Group) |
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1985–2007 |
Woolwich Equitable Building Society (later Woolwich PLC) |
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2008–2017 |
Virgin Media |
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2017–2022 |
The Oxford Souvenir Shop (formerly named the University Gift Shop) |
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2024 |
Sizzled Greek restaurant |
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37 Cornmarket Street in the censuses
1841
Two grocer’s shopmen and a female servant lived upstairs in Thomas Tubb’s shop.
1851
Two servants of the head of the household (the grocer Thomas Tubb) were at home on census night: Samuel Dickinson (18) and Robert Forester (23), both described as a grocer’s shopmen. There was also a housekeeper.
1861
Charles Maitland Underhill (18), a grocer’s assistant and head of the household, lived here with his 17-year-old sister Harriett Roffey Underhill and a female servant
1871
Charles Maitland Underhill (28), now grocer & wine merchant, lived over his shop with his wife Louisa (22) and one servant. A grocer's shopman boarded with them.
1881
The shop was still Charles Maitland Underhill’s grocery shop, but he now lived in Warnborough Road and evidently let out the accommodation upstairs, which was occupied by David Martin (28), an auctioneer & valuer, and his wife Mary (24). They had a housemaid and kitchenmaid.
1891
Listed as being unoccupied, but with rooms over a shop in New Inn Hall Street (as St Michael's Street was called before New Inn Hall Street was extended northwards as far as George Street in 1872).
1901
Described as uninhabited but in occupation: probably part of the grocer's shop below.
1911
No listing.