Oxford History: The High

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King Edward Street did not exist until 1873 when Oriel College completed this new road from the High Street to Oriel Square to create a grander entrance: it was described that year as being “40 feet wide, with a roadway of 22 feet, and a pavement on each side of nine feet”.

The college created the space to bring this wide new street in from the High by demolishing the original No. 109 High Street (which it bought from Balliol College) and 110 High Street (which it already owned) . There is a debate about which King Edward is remembered here, but as Oriel proposed the name and their founder was King Edward II, he seems a likely candidate. Rather oddly, the numbers of the two obliterated shops were transferred to the rebuilt Nos. 111 and 112 to the right, which explains why the three adjoining shops that now comprise Shepherd & Woodward are still curiously numbered 109, 110, and 113. This area has always been in the parish of St Mary-the-Virgin.

The tenants of Swan Court (the entrance of which was between the former Nos. 110 and 111) and of the surrounding area were given notice in the Oxford Chronicle of 22 October 1870 that Oriel and Lincoln College intended to build this new street from High Street to Bear Lane.

The shops on the two corners facing the High Street were also rebuilt in 1872/3, while the other shops lining each side of the new King Edward Street were built in 1873/4. They are all massive buildings, out of proportion to other shops in the High. Pevsner wrote that King Edward Street was “a street of any old-town centre. Just rows of four-storeyed houses, all drab, except for No. 8, the far corner-house, which is Gothic, of yellow brick and stone.”

Jackson's Oxford Journal reported on 11 October 1873:

The new street leading from High-street to Bear-lane — known as King Edward-street — is now formed, and the various shops are being rapidly fitted up, and some of them will be ready for business this Term. The street is 40 feet wide, with a roadway of 22 feet, and a pavement on each side.

[This is followed by a description of the new shops on each side of the new street:
the present No. 108 to the west and the present Nos. 109 & 110) to the west,
which is given on those shops' pages.]

On the west side of King Edward-street has been erected a row of ten-roomed houses and shops of a similar elevation to that of Mr. Goundry's [on west corner, now 109 High Street]. There is a public footpath in the rear, which gives ample light and ventilation to the back rooms. These houses have been fitted up very conveniently, and are intended either for University lodgings or business premises. They have been built by Messrs. Joseph Castle and Co. from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. Codd.

Three substantial houses are also being erected in this street by Mr. James Walters, builder, including one for the Oxford Reform Club, which is to be completed by Lady-day next. Each house is built of white brick, with Bath stone dressings, the roofs being covered with blue slates, and is well arranged for private occupation or business premises. Mr. Shirley designed these houses. Mr. Honor, Cowley Road, has also two houses in course of erection in this street.

The shops here still belong to Oriel College.

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The two plaques in King Edward Street

• Memorial plaque to Cecil Rhodes, alumnus of Oriel College, erected in 1906 on 6 King Edward Street (the college house where he had lodged )
• Oxfordshire Blue Plaque to Ivy Williams, the first woman to be called to the Bar of England & Wales, who lived here with her parents from 1887 to 1904

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The former shops and Swan Court on the site of this new road

Prior to 1872 a row of shops ran continuously along the High at this point Swan Court, which ran between Nos. 110 and 111, was also removed at this time.

The new enlarged No. 108 on the east corner more or less occupies the site of the original house with that number, but the shop on the west corner scooped up the missing numbers 109 & 110, so today the “wrong” numbers (111 & 112) are missing.

The Oriel College plan below is dated 1814 and shows the row of shops that ran in an unbroken line westwards from No. 102 on the corner of Oriel Street, ending on the map with James Wyatt’s house at No. 115 just peeping in:

The occupiers of the row of shops shown above in 1814 were (left to right):

115: Wyatt (tiny fraction visible
114: Holmes
113: Archer         
112: Routledge  [Rebuilt in 1872 and renumbered 110]
111: Winter [Rebuilt in 1872 and renumbered 109]
Here was Swan Court, named on plan [Removed to make way for King Edward Street]
110 & 109: Bridgewater [Removed to make way for King Edward Street]
108: Allen [Rebuilt in 1872]
107: Jones
106: Robinson
105/104: Sadler
103: Loder
102: West
Oriel Street

In Jackson's Oxford Journal of 26 November 1809 Mr A. Routledge announced that he had moved into a more commodious house in the High Street (presumably No. 112), where he sold perukes, ringlets and hair ornaments. Holmes at No. 114 may be the bootmaker John Holmes, who announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 11 December 1813 that he had taken over the premises in the High Street of his late uncle, Mr Rusbridge.

This detail of the above plan shows Bridgewater & Co at the former Nos. 109/110 which were removed along with Swan Court to the left to make way for the road. The shops of Routledge and Winter to the west and Allen to the east were also removed, but these were rebuilt:

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The two shops obliterated in 1870 by the creation of King Edward Street
that formerly had the numbers 109 and 110 (which Shepherd & Woodward appropriated into their premises, so that the three shops at 111, 112, and 113 have five numbers

(1) The shop on the east side of the the start of King Edward Street (the original No.109)

This belonged to Balliol College until 1872, when they sold it to Oriel College for £600. Its early history from 1365 can be found in H. E. Salter, The Oxford Deeds of Balliol College (Oxford, 1913), pp. 204–211.

At the time of the 1841 census this was part of the ironmonger's shop at No. 108, and the upstairs was occupied by Mary Wyatt, who was aged about 75, and her daughter Ann, plus a servant, and in the same premises but listed as a separate household was the baker Thomas Wyatt and his two young children plus to servants and two workers.

The 1851 census shows the gas fitter Richard Hadland living at No. 109 with his wife Mary and their three children. Listed at 109½ was the master baker & confectioner James Boffin (33) who already employed seven men with his wife Eliza and their children Jane (11), Alfred (7), and William (4), plus a general servant, two shop assistants, and six baker's servants.

The following advertisement appeared in Billing's Directory for 1854, showing that by this date James Boffin already had a second shop at 1 Queen Street:

The 1861 census shows the confectioner James Boffin (44) living over the original No. 109 with his wife Eliza and their six children, plus two shop assistants and two servants. In 1865 he moved two doors east to 107 High Street.

• More information on Boffin's Bakery in the Queen Street section of this site

The 1871 census shows the lodging-house keeper Sarah Esther Brazier was living here with her son and daughter and a servant. The following year the premises were demolished to make way for King Edward Street.

(2) The shop on the west side of the site of the start of King Edward Street (the original No. 110)

The shop on the right-hand side (the original No. 110) demolished to make way for King Edward Street already belonged to Oriel College.

It was a grocer's shop from at least 1839 to 1870: the grocer was R. Sheen in 1839.

By the time of the 1841 census the grocer here was Henry Gibbs, and he can be seen living over the shop with two family members (possibly his sisters) with a separate household comprising John Harland and members of his family.

William Way was the grocer here from 1849. The 1851 census shows the grocer William Way (48) living here with his wife Elizabeth and their four children and his unmarried sister-in-law Emma Crozier, plus a grocer's assistant, a journeyman grocer, a grocer's apprentice, and three general servants. They also had an undergraduate lodger. He was still here at the time of the 1861 and 1871 censuses. William Way died at the age of 74 in 1876, and the 1881 census shows his 66-year-old widow, Mrs Elizabeth Widbin Way, as the grocer here, living over the shop with her three sons and two daughters, two grandchildren, and a domestic servant. Her three sons were respectively a grocer, chemist, and a wine & spirit merchant.

The 1861 census shows William Way living here with his wife Elizabeth and their eight children, his brother-in-law Henry Crozier who was a grocer's assistant, and a servant. Way was still here at the time of the 1871 census. The following year his shop and home were demolished to make way for King Edward Street.