Oxford History: The High

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Photograph of the same shops by William Henry Fox Talbot in c.1840

Nos. 42 and 43 are two shops in a timber-framed building dating from the sixteenth or seventeenth century (although the front was modernized in the eighteenth century). It is Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1047281) and was in St Peter-in-the East parish until that parish was united with St Cross parish in 1957.

The building is owned by The Queen’s College, and the back has been incorporated into the Queen’s Lane quad behind: this can be glimpsed through the gate between the two shops.

In 1696 Thomas Higgs paid tax on 14 windows of this whole building.

According to H. E. Salter, at the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford No. 42 was occupied by Mr Baylis and had a frontage measuring 4yd 1ft 7in, and No. 43 was occupied by Mrs L. Leaver with a frontage of 5yds 2ft 2in.

These two houses and the building behind them were described thus in a forthcoming auction notice place in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 24 March 1838:

All those Two MESSUAGES or DWELLING HOUSES, fronting the High-street, Oxford, opposite the Angel Inn, with yards and convenient out-buildings, now in the respective occupations of Messrs. Chadwell and Godfrey. Also a large Building, let in apartments to various persons, at weekly rents, situate in the yard at the back part of the above dwelling houses, and adjoining St. Edmund hall, with passage entrance from the High-street.

The above premises are held by lease under the President and Scholars of Magdalen college, Oxford, for the term of 40 years, from the 6th of December, 1835.

On 7 June 1879 Jackson's Oxford Journal announced a forthcoming auction of the lease of these two houses:

TWO Desirable and capacious DWELLING HOUSES, with Shops, Nos. 42 and 43, High-street, in the respective occupations of Messrs Hill and Bacon, which have been recently repaired, and contain ample accommodation.

The two shops can be seen here in 1949, when they were occupied by the chemist Cameron Price and a vacuum cleaner shop.

No. 42

At the time of the 1841 census this shop was occupied by the tailor James Leech and his wife Martha, a woman called Elizabeth Leech who was probably his mother, and two lodgers.

• Negative image by Henry William Fox Talbot, showing Leech's name over the shop

The 1851 census shows the young chemist & druggist Joseph Lucas, who was already a widower at the age of 21, living here with a nurse and a lodger.

This was a chemist's shop from 1846 to 1964.

At the time of the 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891 censuses the unmarried chemist James Hervey Hill who had this shop lived upstairs with a housekeeper. In 1881 there was also a household numbered 42a comprising the unemployed college servant Charles Brown (38) and his wife Ada and their six children, plus their housemaid.

The 1901 census shows the chemist Herbert Gunstone (28) who had taken over the shop in 1900 living in the eight rooms upstairs with two servants. He was still here at the time of the 1911 census with one servant.

In 1921 the pharmacist William Ambrose (25) lived here with his wife Margaret and their two children. Frm 1925 there was also a Post and Telegraph Office in this chemist's shop, and the 1939 Register lists again shows Ambrose, now described as a pharmacist and sub-postmaster, living over the shop with his wife Margaret and student son David, and a commercial traveller who presumably lodged with them.

No. 43

The 1841 census shows the cutler Charles Chadwell living here with his wife Maria, and their children Ferdinand (7), George (6), William (5), Maria (3), and Eliza (1), plus their female servant and another family that was lodging with them.

At the time of the 1851 census the widow Mary Bellamy (50), who ran the bookbinding business on these premises, was living over the shop with her five sons, of whom three were bookbinders and the other two at school. She was still here in 1861, when she was described as a “bookbinder & stationer employing 7 men, 5 women, & 4 boys”.

The 1871 census shows the bookseller Charles Bacon (39) living here with his wife Mary Ann and his four children, plus their two servants.

On 8 May 1880 the following advertisement appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:

To be LET or SOLD.—Valuable BUSINESS PREMISES and DWELLING HOUSE, No. 43, High-street, Oxford. Rent £60, or price £320.

Valter's Directory for 1880 continues to list Charles Bacon, a bookseller, stationer, and printseller, here at No. 43, and he can again be seen living on the shop premises in the 1881 census with his wife Mary Ann and their six children. He died here at the age of 54 on 30 August 1886, and his wife was listed as the proprietor of the shop from then until 1890.

The 1891 census shows the stationer Miss Elizabeth Beesley (38) living over her shop with her widowed mother and a servant. She was still here at the time of the 1901 census wth her niece Frances R. Hunt (24), who assisted her in the shop.

The 1911 census shows the university lodging-house keeper Miss Caroline Allen (40) living alone in the nine rooms over this shop. She was still here in 1921, with two boarders.

From 1921 to 1941 the stationers Slatter & Rose Ltd had this shop. The 1939 Register again lists the lodging-house keeper Miss Allen as living over the shop with a lady who undertook unpaid domestic duties and a child, plus a companion/housekeeper.

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Link lodgings (variously 42½ or 42a High Street), formerly Fidler's Court

The University Link Lodgings were partly behind these two houses at Nos. 42–43 (numbered 42½ or 42a), and continued behind Nos. 44 and 45 (numbered 44a).

At the time of the 1851 census there were twelve households living at Fidler's Court behind, plus a baker listed in the passage of No. 44

The 1871 census shows seven households here in apartments numbered 1–7 Fidler's Court, while Hannah Quarterman, a lodging-house keeper, was living at what was described as No. 44A with her two daughters, a domestic servant aged 15, and just two lodgers.

In 1876 the bookseller Charles Bacon operated from both Nos. 42 and 44 in 1876, presumably from the ground floor of the Link Lodgings behind Nos. 42–45.

On 7 June 1879 Jackson's Oxford Journal announced a forthcoming auction of the lease of these lodgings:

The extensive UNIVERSITY LODGING HOUSE,
Being No. 42a, High-street, known as “Link Lodgings,” containing 10 double sets of rooms and 2 other bed rooms, entrance hall, housekeeper's room, kitchen, and all the requisite offices, with Yard and Outbuildings adjoining.

The lodgings behind these two houses were advertised for sale or rent again on 8 May 1880:

To be LET or SOLD, Furnished or Unfurnished,—A LODGING HOUSE, 42½ High Street, Oxford, letting 10 Sets. Rent £60, or price £320.

The Sanitary Inspector’s report on the Link Lodgings in 1885 stated:

This is an old lathe and plaster house in fair repair. The rooms are well lighted and ventilated except the Kitchen. The top landing is well lighted and ventilated but the lower passages are dark. The WC is situated in the hall and is well lighted and ventilated and the apparatus is good being a shorthopper well flushed from a waste preventer. The drain is ventilated by a 3 inch pipe. The Scullery sink is not trapped or properly disconnected. The Kitchen and scullery are both dirty and the Kitchen is not ventilated.

In 1886, when the landlord of the Link Lodgings was Norman E. Minty (the cabinet maker at Nos. 44 and 45), most of the rooms were converted into business premises, although two sets of rooms continued to be licensed to be let at rents of 28s. and 23s. per week.

At the time of the 1881 census the Link Lodgings at 42 were occupied by an unemployed college servant, his wife, six children, and a housemaid.

The Link Lodgings seem to disappear in about 1890.