No. 43: Friends Meeting House
This house was dated “W P 1660” between the windows on the top floor, but has been subsequently altered.
Today the doorway on the right actually belongs to No. 42 next door, and the whole of the first floor has been converted to a Quaker Friends’ Meeting House. It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1047145) and lies in St Giles' parish.
At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, No. 43 was two separate houses:
- To the south lived Mr Thetcher, with a frontage of 7 yards 1 foot 4 inches
- To the north was Mr Moore, with a frontage of 4 yards 0 feet 2 inches.
The 1841 census shows Mrs Margaret Keen, a widow aged around 80, living at No. 43 with two other women and two servants.
At the time of the 1851 census this house was occupied by the Revd William Hunter, Chaplain of Corpus Christi College, and his wife and three servants.
George Fox Bridges, who had lived over his grocer’s shop at 56 St Giles’ from 1830 until June 1853, retired to this house. His artist brother Thomas Bridges had painted the back garden of No. 43 as early as 1843, which suggests that the Bridges family had a connection to the house before George’s retirement:
“The Garden” 43 St. Giles Oxford”. Aquarelle by Thomas Bridges, 1843. Size: 25 x 19 cm
The 1861 census show Bridges, described as a retired grocer, living here with his unmarried sister Mary Elizabeth Bridges and one servant. He died here on 4 December 1862 at the age of 56, and the 1871 census shows Miss Bridges (62) living here alone with her servant and a 12-year-old schoolboy, and in 1881 just with a servant, She remained here until her death at the age of 75 on 1 October 1884. The house was advertised to let unfurnished on 22 November 1884.
By 1889 the widow Emily W. Melville Lee was living here. The 1891 census shows her at the age of 57 living here with her son William Lauriston Melville Lee and her two daughters, plus their two servants.
By 1899 the physician & surgeon Frank Grégoire Proudfoot moved into No. 43, and he can be seen here in the 1901 census at the age of 32 with his wife Alice and their baby son Francis, plus three servants. The situation was the same in 1911. He and his wife were still here with their butler and servant at the time of the 1921 census, and with just their cook at the time of the 1939 Register. Dr Proudfoot died the following year.
In 1939 this house was acquired by the Society of Friends (Quakers), who ran a services club and canteen here during the war. In 1946 they themselves moved in and a room was adapted for meetings “until such time as building is permitted”. Also in1946 the house next door at No. 42 was given to the Quakers and a combined meeting house designed by Thomas Rayson was erected in the back garden of both properties in 1954/5 (planning applications 51/01835/A_H and A1835B/4236).
Occupants of 43 St Giles’ Street listed in censuses and directories |
|
1841–1846 |
Mrs Margaret Keen |
1851–1852 |
Rev. William Hunter |
1861–1884 |
George Fox Bridges (1861) |
1887 |
Mrs Brown |
1889–1895 |
Mrs Melville-Lee |
1896 |
Mrs Edwyn Vaughan |
1899–1939 |
Frank Grégoire Proudfoot |
1939–present |
Society of Friends (Quakers) providing the St Giles’ Services Club & Canteen here from 1941 to 1945 |