118: Breckon & Breckon
The property on the site of this house and No. 117 to the east, and everything except the front shop at No. 119 to the west was known as Redcock's in 1419 when it was bought by Oxford City Council. It is now owned by Lincoln College.
For details of the leaseholders of Nos. 118–119 High Street from 1580 to 1842, see H. E. Salter, Oxford City Properties (Oxford Historical Society, 1926), pp. 126–129.
No. 118 dates from the sixteenth century, but the front has been much altered, with only the two top windows surviving. It is a Grade II* listed building (List Entry No. 1047257). For a full description of this building, including photographs of a sixteenth-century fireplace and seventeenth-century ceiling beam and wall panelling, see the Heritage Statement listed on the Documents tab of planning application 24/02552/LBC.
The building was in the parish of All Saints until that church closed in 1971. It is now in the parish of St Michael-at-the-Northgate.
According to H. E. Salter, at the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford No. 118 was occupied by two households: Mr Bridle (with a frontage of 3 yards and 2 feet) and Mr Cook (with a frontage of 4 yards).
This was a chemist’s shop from at least 1833 to 1937.
At the time of the 1841 census the chemist Edward Rogers Kett lived here with his wife Sarah and their children Sarah (5), Edward (4), Mary (2), and Thomas Plowman Kett (five months), plus an apprentice and two female servants.
On 21 May 1842 the following advertisement relating to 118 High Street appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
TO be SOLD or LET, with possession at Michaelmas next,—All those convenient and well-situated PREMISES, in the centre of the High-street, Oxford, now in the possession of Mr. E. R. Kett, chemist and druggist; consisting of a double-fronted shop, excellent dwelling house, garden, extensive warehouses, and every convenience for carrying on any business requiring a good locality and extensive out-buildings.
Kett appears to have remained in these premises until at least 1846.
At the time of the 1851 census the chemist here was Francis W. Edwards, and he lived over the shop with his wife Fanny and their daughters Cate and Emily, plus two servants. Another chemist, Henry C. Upjohn (29) lived here with his sisters Laura and Lucy plus a lodger and a servant at the time of the 1861 census, and he was still here in 1871 and 1881.
George Claridge Druce and his chemist's shop at No. 118 (1879–1937)
From 1879 the well-known botanist George Claridge Druce (1850–1932) had his chemist shop here.
The 1881 census shows Druce living here over his shop with his 17-year-old assistant. At the time of the 1891 census Druce and his mother Jane Druce plus their servant and three assistant chemists were living over this shop.
He was one of the first people in Oxford to have a telephone line put in, and in 1895 he had the simple number “Oxford 12”.
Druce served on Oxford City Council from 1892, and in 1900 he was Mayor of Oxford.
He and his shop play a small role in Max Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson (1911), patching up the Duke of Dorsetshire when he trips and injures himself when running away from Zuleika.
Another chemist, Clement James Bellamy, occupied the shop at No. 118 from 1908 to 1920. The 1901 census shows the chemist & manager Tom L. Dudgeon (26) living here with a chemist's shopman and their housekeeper, but by the time of the 1911 census Bellamy himself (30) and his wife Maud plus a chemist's assistant lived in the seven rooms over the shop.
Druce died in 1932, but his shop was still listed as Druce & Co. to 1937.
The shop now has an Oxfordshire Blue Plaque remembering Druce.
No. 118 from 1939
From 1939 to 1968 South Midland Motor Services (right) were based here at No. 118.
In 1970 A-Plan Insurance combined this shop with No. 117 to the east, and the two shops remained attached until 1993.
On 16 September 1988, the City of Oxford Council accepted an offer of £2,350,000 from Lincoln College for the freehold interest in Nos 117–119 High Street. The second floor upstairs was used as a Fellow's flat, but planning permission was granted to the college in 2023 to turn it into a Fellow's office and teaching rooms (23/02125/FUL)
From 2000 to 2006 the ground floor was a computer shop. In November 2004 the shop front was destroyed in an accident.
Occupiers of 118 High Street |
|
Before 1833 |
Thomas Sadler (died aged 43 on 31 May 1831) |
1833–1846+ |
Edward Rogers Kett, Chemist & druggist |
1852, 1853 | Francis William Edwards, Chemist & druggist |
1861–1872 | Henry Charles Upjohn, Chemist |
1875–1878 | Edwin Burbridge, Chemist |
1879–1907 | George Claridge
Druce, MA, FLS |
1908–1937 | Clement Bellamy, Pharmaceutical chemist (1908–1920) |
1939–1968 |
South Midland Motor Services Ltd, Motor coach proprietors |
1970–1993 |
A-Plan Protection Ltd, Insurance brokers (jointly with No. 117) |
2000–2006 |
Mices.com, Computers |
2007–present |
Breckon & Breckon |
