St Michael’s Street (off west side of Cornmarket)
The road that is now called St Michael’s Street has only had that name since the early twentieth century. It is opposite St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church and runs between 37 and 38 Cornmarket Street, coming to an end at the Wesley Memorial Church (which opened in 1878).
The Bocardo (the City Gaol) was immediately north of the east end of the street by the Northgate until it was demolished in 1771, and sometimes this road was known as Bocardo Lane.
Throughout the whole of the nineteenth century it was called New Inn Hall Lane and later New Inn Hall Street East. This is because New Inn Hall Street did not originally extend up to George Street, but instead linked Queen Street to Cornmarket with a sharp turn to the east, keeping inside the old city wall. This means that in directories up to 1899 and in censuses up to 1901, the address of the Oxford Union Society (now 7 & 9 St Michael Street) is given as 24 New Inn Hall Street east.
In 1873 New Inn Hall Street was extended northwards to George Street, but as the 1876 map below shows, both the new section of road running north to George Street and the original part running east to Cornmarket were both named New Inn Hall Street.
It was more logical for the new part of New Inn Hall Street to bear that name, and iIn about 1901 the part of the road running eastwards to Cornmarket was renamed St Michael's Street.