Oxford History: The High

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The group of five shops numbered 19–23 High Street dates from the late eighteenth century, and the upstairs rooms were converted into Brasenose College accommodation around 1930. They were in the parish of All Saints until that church closed in 1971. They are now in the parish of St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church.

No. 23 is the pink shop to the right of the group (attached to part of Brasenose) and is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1369358).

On 24 May 1806 the following advertisement appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:

HUDSON and LLOYD
RESPECTFULLY inform the Ladies of Oxford and its Vicinity, that they have opened a Shop, in the High Street, Five Doors below All Saints' Church, and just returned from London with an elegant and fashionable Assortment of Millinery and Fancy Dresses, together with a Variety of Straw and Chip Hats, all of which may be depended upon being quite new and fashionable.
N.B. A Variety of Child Bed Linen kept.”

In 1839 this was the tailor's shop of James Liddell, but by 1846 James Embling was the tailor here. The 1851 census shows Embling as a widower of 38, living over his tailor’s shop with his son James junior (a 14-year-old schoolboy) and one servant. He was described as as an employer of six men. Within a year he had married his second wife, Anna Saxty of Colchester.

In 1853 Henry Taunt, who was just eleven years old, was one of Embling's employees. (Taunt, destined to become a famous local photographer, was then earning 4/- a week, and was able to read or paint in the back of the shop when things were quiet. Three years later, at the age of 14, Taunt moved to a job just three shops away at No. 26 and began his photographic career.)

On 2 May 1859 the tailor & robe maker James Embling announced that he had added shirt making and hosiery to his business at 23 High Street, to be conducted by his son (presumably James Embling junior). On 12 January 1861 his second wife Anna Embling (née Saxty) died here at 23 High Street, and at the time of the 1861 census James Embling (48) was living here with his son Thomas (2) and daughter Lucy (1) and three servants. The 1871 census shows him here with three of his children: John (16), William (15), and Thomas (12), two of his nieces, and a servant. He was still living over the shop with four of his children, plus a cook and housemaid, at the time of the 1881 census.

 

From 1894 to 1908 the cigar & cigarette merchant Colin Lunn had his shop here, with the widow Mrs Florence Hill running a boarding house upstairs. The 1891 census shows Mrs Hill (35) living upstairs with her daughters Madeleine (13) and Dorothy (8), plus a general servant. By the time of the 1901 census her daughter Madeleine (22) was living here and described as being in charge of the lodging house, with her sister Dorothy and her cousin who were both still at school, plus a servant.

 

Right: Advertisement for Lunn in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 19 December 1899.

 

In 1909 Brasenose College demolished the old Ryman’s at Nos. 24 and 25 Lunn moved into No. 22 next door, and Ryman’s moved into this shop, and remained here for about sixty years:

• Photograph of Rymans at 23 High Street in 1949