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No. 21 Broad Street probably dates from the early eighteenth century. It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1047348).

This building is owned by Oxford City Council and is in St Michael-at-the-Northgate parish.

At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford it was occupied by a Mr Sanders (probably the cordwainer Robert Saunders), and its frontage measured 5yd 0ft 9in. On 9 July 1818 the Council Acts recorded: “Also it is agreed that William Saunders shall have a new lease of two little tenements down the passage (late Pears’s) for forty years from Lady day last for a fine of five pounds each tenement under the old rents & covenants”, and the yard in behind this shop became known as Saunders Court or Passage.

At the time of the 1841and 1851 censuses this shop with the residence upstairs was occupied by the bootmaker John Saunders. He was still listed here in the 1861 census, aged 69, with his wife and children aged 6, 12, and 21. He died here at the age of 75 on 1 February 1867.

James A. Acock opened a bookshop here at No. 21 in 1867 following the death of Saunders, and at the time of the 1871 census he was living upstairs his sister and a servant.

On 26 May 1877 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised a forthcoming auction of a 40-year lease of both Nos. 21 and 22 Broad Street. This shop at No. 21, and the cottages behind, were described as follows:

Lot 4 — All those very valuable BUSINESS PREMISES, known as No. 21 Broad-street, Oxford, containing capital front and back shops, with private office on the ground floor; paved yard at the back leading to kitchen, with excellent cellars and offices in the basement; drawing room and two bed rooms on the first floor; sitting room and two bed rooms on second floor; also, approached by a side entrance through the yard, a two-story wash house, now used as a ware room, with bed room over, and w.c., as now in the occupation of Mr. Acock, bookseller, at the low rental of £75 per annum.
   [Lease of No. 21] for a term of 40 years from Lady Day, 1875, subject to the Ground Rent of £1, two pullets or 2s. 6d. in money, and an acquittance of 8d., and a Land Tax off £2 4s. 11d. per annum.

Lot 6.— All those THREE conveniently-arranged Three-story COTTAGES, approached by passage entrance, and situate in Saunders's-yard, Broad-street, at the back of Lot 4, in the respective occupations of Messrs. East, Lond, and Shepherd, and producing an aggregate rental of £31 per annum,

On 28 February 1874 Acock advertised that he was also starting a subscription circulating library here.

The 1881 census shows that the accommodation above the bookshop at No. 21 was let out to the cab driver Alfred Wood and his wife.

Acock died at the age of 47 in 1889. On 16 April 1882 his executors announced that they would carry on his bookseller's business at 21 Broad Street as before, and in the same year it expanded to include No. 22 on the left.

At the time of the 1891 census the bookseller's assistant Harry Harvey (33) was living upstairs at Nos. 21 & 22 with his wife Matilda.

The bookseller William Parker took over Nos. 21 & 22 in 1892. The stamp (right) dating from 5 September that year is in a book that was still available for loan from Oxford Westgate Library in the twenty-first century. Parker's (formerly Acock's) circulating library boasted in February 1894 that it had over 14,000 volumes, for which borrowers paid 2d. per book per week.

On 5 June 1893 the Property & Estates Committee agreed that a licence be granted to Mr. Walter Acock and the Misses Clara Frances and Alice Acock

to assign absolutely the leasehold house and premises No. 21, Broad-street, and being No. 72 in the schedule to the city property, held under a lease for a term of 40 years, from the 25th March, 1889, to Sarah Jane Harris, of 13, Iffley-road, widow

with a similar licence relating to 22 Broad Street.

Then 29 October 1894 the Property & Estates Committee agreed that a licence be granted to Mrs Sarah Jane Harris of 153 Iffley Road

to assign absolutely to William Parker, 53, Woodstock-road, subject to the mortgage to Miss Mary Ann Day. the leasehold house and premises No. 21 Broad-street, held under lease for a term of 40 years from the 25th day of March, 1889; also a license to the said Sarah Jane Harris to assign absolutely to the said William Parker, subject to the mortgage to Miss Mary Ann Day, the leasehold house and premises, No. 22 Broad-street, held under lease for a term of 40 years from the 29th day of September 1879; also licences to the said William Parker to demise the said premises, Nos. 21 and 22 as from the 1st day of September, 1894, to Harry Harvey, of 21 and 22, Broad-street, bookseller and stationer, for the residue of the said terms except the last days thereof.

Frank Harvey was the bookseller here from 1894 to 1912. He also had the premises next door, and the 1901 census shows him at the age of 43 living over Nos. 21 & 22 with his wife and mother-in-law.

At the time of the 1911 census the living quarters over 21 & 22 Broad Street were occupied by Harry Harold, a tailor aged 30, who lived alone in the seven rooms.

No. 21 remained a bookshop until 1914, then from 1915 to 1972 Millins, tailors/furriers, were at this shop.

The Heritage, Design, & Access Statement included in the documents of planning application 24/01638/LBC gives a good history of 21 & 22 Broad Street.