Former houses at 13–15 Cornmarket Street
These three houses stood on the south part of the site of Northgate House until 1960. They were always in the parish of St Michael-at-the-Northgate.
Nos. 13 & 14
The two small shops that stood here on the north side of the junction with Market Street were demolished in c.1845 and replaced with the building shown on the right (now itself demolished).
The premises stretched a good way down Market Street, and the offices above were known as Clarendon Chambers. This shop was sometimes numbered 13 and sometimes 14 in early directories and censuses.
On 20 March 1847 the draper J. Sparrow announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he was moving into the new shop at No. 14 on 25 March.
John Mayo and his son Arthur ran a tobacco business and wine shop at Nos. 13/14 from 1854 to 1893. He had a second branch at 22 Cornmarket from 1890 to 1914, and a third at 42 Cornmarket from 1896 to 1901.
- For an image of Mayo’s wine shop at 13–14 Cornmarket at the top of a bill dated 1875, see Michael L. Turner and David Vaisey, Oxford Shops and Shopping, p. 29, illustration 60.
No. 15
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. According to H. E. Salter, 15 Cornmarket to the left of this group was then in the occupation of Mr [Richard] Weston, and had a frontage of 4 yards, 1 ft. and 7 in.
The Horn family of confectioners was at No. 15 from at least the early 1830s to 1880.
Right: A glimpse of the buildings just north of Market Street in 1900. Nos. 13 & 14 Cornmarket on the corner was then occupied a wine & spirit merchant. The narrow building to the north at No. 15 was a confectioner’s shop
In 1960 Nos. 13, 14, & 15 Cornmarket Street were demolished at the same time as two old shops and one more modern building to the north and replaced by the enormous block of Northgate House at 13–20 Cornmarket Street, and Marks & Spencer moved on to the site of the eight old shops.
Occupants of 13–15 Cornmarket Street listed in directories etc. |
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| No. 15 (left) | No. 14 | No. 13 (right) | |
1841 |
Richard Horn His widow Catherine Horn Their sons John & Edward Horn Edward Horn |
Frederick Telfer |
William Peter Adams |
1846 |
No listing (probably being rebuilt) |
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1847 |
J. Sparrow, Draper |
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1851–1852 |
William & Charles Wells |
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1861 |
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1866–1878 |
John Mayo Mayo & Son by 1880 Arthur Mayo by 1890 |
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1878–1880+ |
W. H. Seary |
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1890–1893 |
William Henry Viner |
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1899 |
Edmund John Brooks |
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1901–1904 |
Francis Twining Sidney Twining Sidney Twining & Co. |
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1905–1945 |
George E. Weeks & Co. |
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1947–1956 |
Quality Cleaners Ltd |
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1958 |
Not listed: presumably the first to be demolished |
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1960 |
Not listed: currently being rebuilt as the new Marks & Spencer store, |
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13–15 Cornmarket Street in the censuses
1841
No. 13: The stationer William Adams (30) lived over his shop with Emma (25) and William (7) and Emma (4). An independent young man of 20 and one female servant also lived with them.
No. 14: The chemist Frederick Telfer (30) lived over his shop with Elizabeth (7) and Frederick (5), plus an apprentice chemist John Loder, an independent person, and one female servant. (Telfer was to take over the shop at 11 Cornmarket when Nos. 13 and 14 were combined into one new shop.)
No. 15: The confectioner Catherine Horn (50) lived here with her son Edward (20), who also described as a confectioner, and her daughter Mary (15). They shared the house with a journeyman and two independent persons, and they had two female servants.
Nos. 13 & 14 probably rebuilt as one shop in c.1845
1851
No. 13/14: William Wells (30), an unmarried jeweller, lived here over his shop with his brother Walter J. Wells (19), described as his assistant, and one servant.
No. 15: Catherine Horn (61), a widowed confectioner employing four men and one boy, lived here over the shop with her children John (32), a hatter; Edward (30), a confectioner; Mary (26), an assistant; and William (20), a cook. Also living with her was her grandson Thomas Bolton, a surgeon’s assistant. A confectioner and two bakers also lived in the household, and they had one house servant.
1861
No. 13/14: Eliza Jane Wells (30), described as a jeweller's wife, lived over her husband’s shop with their children Charles (5) and Caroline (1). Also living with them was the jeweller’s brother-in-law, Edward Barker (25), described as a jeweller’s assistant; and his sister Mary Wells (22), described as a shopwoman. They had two servants: a nursemaid and a general servant.
No. 15: John Horn (42), a confectioner, and his sister Catherine (49), who were both unmarried, lived here with their nephew John Gee (19), who was a hatter and hosier. Two young male bakers who work for Horn also lived with them, and they had one house servant.
1871
Nos. 13/14: John Mayo (42), a widowed wine & spirit merchant, lived here with his children Clara (17), Agnes (13), Laura (11), Arthur (9), and Alice (7), and his housekeeper.
No. 15: John Horn (52), confectioner, lived here over his shop with his unmarried sister Catherine (59), and a servant and apprentice.
1881
No. 13/14: John Mayo (54), wine & spirit merchant, lived her over his shop with his son Arthur (19), who acted as his assistant, and his daughter Amy (17). They had a housekeeper.
No. 15: William Henry Viner (35), an unmarried baker & confectioner’s manager, lived over the shop with his sister Emma (18), who was a confectioner’s assistant, as well as a baker’s boy of 13, and a general servant.
1891
Nos. 13/14: Listed as uninhabited: probably part of the wine merchant's shop downstairs.
No. 15: William Henry Viner (45), a cook, confectioner, and bread & biscuit baker, still lived over his shop, this time with his wife Jane Viner (50) and two nieces: Millicent Miller (15), who was a milliner, and Bessie (7), who was a scholar. Eight members of staff (described as their servants) lived with them: a shopwoman, assistant shopwoman, two domestic servants, a pastry cook & confectioner, an assistant pastry cook & confectioner, and two bread bakers.
1901
Nos. 13/14: Uninhabited: probably part of the wine merchant's shop downstairs.
No. 15: William Henry Viner (55), cook and confectioner, still lived over his shop with his wife Jane (60) and niece Bessie Viner Millens (17). Also living on the premises were two shop assistants, a cook, housemaid, kitchenmaid, pastry cook, journeyman baker, and bread delivery man.
1911
Nos. 13 & 14: No listing: : probably part of the wine merchant's shop downstairs.
No. 15: Miss Sarah Ann Carter (39) the manageress of this confectioner's shop & restaurant, lived in eight rooms here with four shop assistants, a servant, and a waitress.