Oxford History: The High

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No 33 is Drawda Hall. It is named after William Drogheda who lived in the house that previously stood on this site and is said to have been murdered here in 1245.

The present house dates from the seventeenth century, but its front was changed in the eighteenth century and this engraving shows it looking very different in 1755, when it had two gables.

It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1047277). Together with its neighbours at 34, 35, 36, 37, and 38 High Street to the west, No. 33 is now owned by The Queen's College.

As the parish boundary marker on the wal lof All Souls College to the left shows, was the most westerly house in the High in St Peter-in-the East parish (which was united first with St Cross parish in 1957 and then with St Mary-the-Virgin parish).

• View of the present Drawda Hall from inside The Queen's College

In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. According to H. E. Salter, No. 33 had a frontage of 6 yards 2 feet 11 inches and was then in the occupation of a Mr Glass. This was Dr Samuel Glass, a surgeon of the University of Oxford, who had been matriculated as a privileged person on 16 May 1752.

In April 1772 the bookseller & jeweller Peter Delamotte (the father of William Alfred Delamotte senior) bought from Glass both this shop and the farmhouse beside St Bartholomew's Chapel, where Glass had made his magnesia, and appears mostly to have lived at the latter when he was in Oxford. This shop may be the premises in Oxford "now in the occupation of Mr Delamotte" that were advertised to let in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 8 March 1777.

By 1834 this shop was occupied by the tailor Richard Giles, who advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 3 May 1834 that in his shop opposite University College he could furnish Members of the University with law, divinity, and all other robes, cassocks, hoods, surplices, &c. on the shortest notice. The 1841 census shows Richard Giles and his wife Fanny living upstairs at No. 33 with a lodger and two female servants.

By the time of the 1851 census this was the shop of the tailor & robe maker Charles Feldon (53), who lived upstairs with his wife Elizabeth and his seven children, plus a female servant and two servants, and a widowed college servant (Martha Harris) lived at No. 33½. The 1861 census shows Feldon and his wife here with their sons Henry and Frederick (both tailors) and their two daughters, plus a servant. Once again a college servant (Charles Brown) lived elsewhere on the premises with his family. Both households were still here at the time of the 1871 census.

The bookseller James Thornton ( the son of Joseph Thornton, the founder of Thornton’s well-known bookshop) had this shop from 1867 to 1907 under a yearly tenancy under Merton College, and also had a bookshop at 41 High Street from 1882 to 1884. James Thornton lived in Park Town, and the accommodation above No. 33 was let out to various people:

• 1881 census: A widow, Mrs Elizabeth Brown (61) and her governess daughter Selina lived upstairs with an undergraduate lodger and one servant.
• 1891 census: a college servant William Tomlins with his wife and son and their servant are listed at No. 33 , while Elizabeth Brown still lived at 33a with her daughter Selina Stevens and her husband, plus their servant.
• 1901 census: A family called Davies lived over No. 33, but the parents were away and the two young children were being looked after by their maternal grandmother Sarah Whineup and two servants. The widow Selina Stevens lived at 33A with a boarder and her servant.
• 1902 to 1912: Robert Günther lived above the bookshop. He was an Oxford don who founded the Museum of the History of Science. He was the editor of The Oxford Country (1912), a collection of Victorian and Edwardian articles describing walks in Oxfordshire. He was away in Bournemouth at the time of the 1911 census, but his wife Amy (42) was at home in the eight-roomed premises here with their cook, and the widow Selina Stevens (57) occupied six rooms at No. 33a with her servant.
• The 1921 census again lists the widow Slina Stevens (67) here with her servant.

In 1907 John Henry Thornton and his son Frederick Stanbury Thornton of 11 Broad Street (who were still trading under the old name of Joseph Thornton & Son) transferred the lease of 33 High Street to Cottrell Horser (who had worked for 26 years for James Thornton) and Hedley Vicars Storey until 25 March 1908, when they became the tenants under Magdalen College. They traded here as Horser & Storey until 1912, and then just under the name of Cottrell Horser until 1929.

From 1912 to 1922 the typewriter business of William Hunt operated from upstairs here before moving to Broad Street.

The author Kyril Bonfiglioli ran this shop as part of his business from c.1962 to 1966.

Photograph of the Drawda Hall bookshop in 1949