No. 32: Former shop and lodging house
No. 32 was the third house down from the Holywell corner on the east side of Broad Street. It was in Holywell parish. Together with No. 31 to the south, it was demolished in 1891 to make room for the second phase (the three right-hand bays) of the Indian Institute. The Institute had to be built in two phases because there were old leases on this shop and No. 31 which did not expire until 1891.
The 1772 Survey of Oxford shows that the saddler Nicholas Halse (c.1726–1800) had his shop here, and that it had a frontage of 6 yards 2 ft 3 in. Parson Woodforde (who lived just around the corner in New College) was a regular visitor to his saddlery when an undergraduate (1758–1763) and mentions it a number of times in his diaries. The William Halse who was granted have a new lease of a tenement, garden ground, and premises in the parish of Holiwell for 40 Years from Lady Day in 1810 was presumably his son of that name.
The 1841 census shows the ironmonger John Hoar (25) living here with Caroline (35) and John (4 months). It may have been Caroline’s second marriage, as also in the household are Elizabeth, Caroline, and John Stone, all put down as aged 15. They also appear to have had two lodgers.
On 14 October 1843 Thomas Percival Mucklow announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he had commenced business as a dispensing chemist at 32 Broad Street. In 1844 he married Frances Rockall, and the premises appear to have been large, as on 17 February 1849 Messrs Rockall & Jones announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that they had opened the Oxford University Tea and Italian Warehouse here at No. 32, and that they would include in their list “every kind of Grocery and Fruits, Biscuits, Potted Meats, and such articles are are more particularly adapted for the use of the Members of the University”. The 1851 census shows Richard Rockall, a 58-year-old billiard-table keeper, living here with his wife Mary, plus a man who worked as a billiard-marker and a servant. (Rockall was also the billiard table keeper at the Skylight Rooms, which were in another her large building running at right-angles in behind No. 32.) His wife ran a small lodging house at No. 32, and two young graduate lodgers were living with them, Charles Boase and Charles Hutchison. Edward Payne, the grocer who now rented the front shop, also lived in the same house, and there was a cottage at the back of No. 32 occupied by the paper-hanger John Jones and his wife Sarah.
By November 1855 Payne had moved next door to No. 31 and the chemist George Thomas Prior had opened his shop at 32 Broad Street: he described it as lately having been occupied by another chemist, T. P. Mucklow, whose furniture had been put up for sale in July 1853. In 1858 Thurland married Sophia Sarah Thurland. The 1861 census shows Prior living on his premises at No. 32 with his wife Sophia and their young daughter, plus an apprentice, and a servant, and there was also room on the site for the Williams family with their five children, a governess, and three servants.
On 22 September 1866 the forthcoming auction of this shop and the billiard rooms (both of which were held on lease from the Warden and Scholars of Merton College for forty years from Lady Day 1852) was advertised thus in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
Lot 3—A well-situated HOUSE, with CHEMIST'S SHOP, No. 32, Broad-street, in the occupation of Mr. Prior. The House comprises front and back shops, 4 sitting rooms, 7 bedrooms, cellars, and servants' offices.
Lot 4—TWO capital BILLARD ROOMS, with Slate Tables, nearly new (by Burroughes and Watts), with Cues, Balls, Marking Boards, &c.; Marker's Room, Cottage, and small Garden, with entrance from Holywell-street, in the occupation of Mrs. Rockall.
The 1871 and 1881 censuses shows the chemist George T. Prior still living here at No. 32 with his family. From January 1883 for at least a year, the archaeologist Arthur Evans and his wife Margaret were their lodgers. Both his daughters were already dead when his wife Sophia Sarah Prior died at the age of 64 in December 1888. He was still a pharmacist here at the time of the 1891 census, and his widowed sister Sarah Esther Brazier had moved in with him.
Photograph showing No. 32 next to the first phase of the Indian Institute (wrongly dated 1900)
Prior remained here until his shop was demolished in 1892 along with No. 31 to the right to make way for the second phase of the Indian Institute. On 2 July 1892 he inserted the following notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
NOTICE OF REMOVAL,
IN consequence of the University requiring the site of the Old-established PHARMACY, 32, BROAD STREET, OXFORD, for the Enlargement of the Indian Institute, MR. G. T. PRIOR (Local Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society), who has so long been the Proprietor, has REMOVED to 45, HOLYWELL STREET (still adjoining the Institute, where he hopes to receive a continuance of the kind patronage accorded to him for 37 years by the Members of the University, the Parishioners of Holywell, and the general Public, for which he begs to tender his sincere thanks.
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Occupants of 32 Broad Street listed in directories |
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1751–1800+ |
Nicholas Halse, saddler (died 1800) |
1839–1842 |
John Hoar, Ironmonger & Smith |
1843–1853 |
T. P. Mucklow, Dispensing chemist The premises were also occupied by R. Rockall, Picture frame maker in 1846 Edward Hewitt Payne, the grocer & tea dealer at No. 31 next door, lived with the Rockalls in 1851 |
1855–1891 |
George T. Prior, Pharmaceutical chemist |
| Demolished in 1891 (along with No. 31 to the south) |
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