Oxford History: The High

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No. 58 on the left of the above photograph and No. 59 in the middle are the two halves of a Georgian house which is Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1047283). The present No. 60 on the corner was rebuilt in the late 1930s, and is now linked to No. 59 to form one shop.

These houses were in St Peter-in-the East parish until that parish was united with St Cross parish in 1957. Since 1849 this building has been owned by Magdalen College, and the rooms upstairs are known as their Longwall Annexe.

The reason for the number change here is that the whole Georgian house used to be numbered 58, leaving the number 59 free for the shop tacked on to the corner. But after that house was divided into two in 1894, it was renumbered 58 and 59, and the corner shop was then allocated the number 60. (This had the knock-on effect that the Magdalen Gate House on the other side of the road, which had formerly been numbered 60 and 61, became just 61.)

Nos. 58 & 59 (the Georgian house formerly numbered 58)

The former building on this site, called the Tower House, was at the east end of the East Gate of the city. For details of the leaseholders of this building from 1666 to 1772, see H. E. Salter, Oxford City Properties (Oxford Historical Society, 1926), pp. 311–12. The city sold the Nos. 58 and 59 to the mason John Townesend in 1772, after the Paving Commissioners commanded that part of the premises should be pulled down.

A forthcoming auction of the rebuilt house was advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 2 July 1803:

All those extensive PREMISSES, pleasantly situate near the Bottom of the High Street, late the Residence of S. TOWNESEND, Esq., deceased [Stephen Townesend, died 1800], now in the Occupation of Mrs. Platt, &c. Tenants at Will; comprising a modern well-built EDIFICE, with an ashlar-sashed front, containing a neat hall, commodious dining and drawing rooms on the ground floor, with handsome Marble Chimney Pieces suitable Chambers with Dressing Rooms and Attics, an airy Sky-Light, good Cellaring, Kitchen, Pantry, and Scullery attached, a paved and sashed Bath, Wash-House, and Laundry detached; neat Pleasure Ground and Garden, with a Hot-House, Melon Frame, and Green-House, Stable Yard leading to Long Wall, containing good Stabling for four Horses, Hay and Straw Lofts, Saddle and Harness Room, and Coach-House; together with the adjoining House, forming a Part of the same Front, in the Occupation of Mrs. HUMPHRIES, Tenant at Will; comprising a Hall and Dining Room in Front, with a Drawing Room and comfortable Chambers and Attics over the same, neat Marble Chimney Pieces, Cellar, Kitchen, Pantry, and Scullery attached, Back Kitchen and Laundry detached.

At the time of the 1841 census this house was occupied by the independent gentleman Henry Dixon and his wife Caroline and their five children, plus one male and four female servants. In 1849 Magdalen College bought this house from Dixon and from then until 1894 it was the boarding house of Magdalen College School from about the middle of the nineteenth century until 1894. In his book Old Magdalen Days (1913) Lewis Tuckwell, the Precentor of Magdalen College choir, wrote:

Hitherto Choristers whose homes were not in Oxford were lodged in small houses in Long Wall Street. This was not in any way a happy arrangement, and in 1849, at the suggestion of Mr Millard [the Revd James E. Millard, the new Master of Magdalen College School], a large house in the lower part of High Street, now known as No. 58, was bought by the College of a Mr Dickson, and there the Choristers were placed under the care of the new Master.

Thus the 1851 census shows the Revd James E. Millard living at No. 58 (now numbered 58/59) with 23 boarders aged from 8 to 16, plus the school matron, the school cook, and two housemaids.

By the time of the 1861 census the school also occupied the house next door, No. 57. The census that year shows Millard living at the present Nos. 57 & 58/59 with 48 boarders and six servants.

Richard Hill was the next Master, and at the time of the 1871 census his wife was here with their six children and 24 boarders.

At the time of the 1881 census the Revd Harmer C. Ogle (38), the next Master of the school, was living here with his unmarried sisters Helen and Camilla and 33 boarders aged from 12 to 18, plus the school matron, cook, three housemaids, kitchen maid, and a general domestic.

The headmaster used the front entrance in the High, while the pupils used a side entrance around the corner. Kelly’s Directory for 1891 described that on the west side of Longwall Street there was:

the scholars’ entrance to the head master’s boarding house, together with a private chapel for the use of the boarders. The private residence of the head master faces the High street, and is distinguished by the arms of the college placed over the entrance.

The 1891 census shows the Revd William Edward Sherwood, the next Master, living here with four boarders and eight servants. In 1894 the school moved across the road into its new building on the west side of Cowley Place.

Soon after Magdalen College School had moved out, the Georgian house previously numbered 58 was divided into Nos. 58 and 59, with the former shop at the corner that had been No. 59 being allocated the number 60.

The 1901 census shows the lodging-house keeper James Chamberlain (61) living over No. 58 with his wife Ellen and their two children. By the time of the 1911 census both James & Ellen Chamberlain were described as lodging-house keepers, occupying sixteen rooms with their daughter, while Henry George Chamberlain (48), also a lodging-house keeper, occupied another ten rooms over No. 59 with his wife and his nephew. In 1918 the building became one again and operated as a a hotel.

The 1921 census shows Mrs Emily Selby-Smith, the proprietress of the private hotel that was now at Nos. 58 & 59, living here with her niece, plus two servants and ten boarders.

In 1938 the building was divided into two again, and the 1939 Register lists four flats at No. 38, as follows:

• 58a (Caretaker's flat): Sydney Cleverly, a Magdalen College maintenance engineer, and his wife Marion and probably their child
• 58a (First Floor Flat): Gustav Steiner and his wife Therese, both doctors of medicine and neurologists, and Marie Katz, who was a teacher of mathematics and physics, and Johanna Katz, who was the matron of a nurses' training school
• 58a (Second Floor Flat): Harold G. Hanbury, a Fellow of Lincoln College and a Barrister at Law, and his servant,

 

 

Left This advertisement for the Speedwell
Cleaning Co., which included the branch
at 59 High Street, dates from the 1950s

No.60 on the corner (formerly numbered 59 and rebuilt in the late 1930s)

For details of the leaseholders of this building from 1628 to 1842, see H. E. Salter, Oxford City Properties (Oxford Historical Society, 1926), pp. 313–14.

The printseller and carver & painter William Thompson moved his business here from 39 High Street in 1846 and remained here until his death on 8 August 1871. At the time of the 1851 census only a servant was at home with a 21-year-old shopman (who was described as a carver & gilder) and the two lodgers. At the time of the 1871 census a clergyman without cure of souls, Thomas C. Browne (57), was living over the shop here with his wife and their servant.

On 31 January 1874 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised the forthcoming auction of the former shop on the corner:

A SUBSTANTIALLY BUILT FAMILY RESIDENCE AND VERY EXTENSIVE BUSINESS PREMISES,
In the HIGH STREET, OXFORD
For many years in the occupation of the late Mr Alderman Thompson ...
All that modern and substantially-built Dwelling House and extensive Business Premises attached, known as No. 59 [now 60] High-street, Oxford, comprising a spacious and commanding front shop, 21 feet by 33 feet, anti[sic]-room, 18 feet by 11 feet, leading to lofty picture gallery or show room, 20 feet by 31 feet, store room, 14 feet by 7 feet, spacious back premises, leading to a range of three-story workshops, 30 feet by 14 feet, with gateway side entrance thereto from Long Wall-street, to which the premises have a frontage of about 100 feet. The Dwelling House contains—
   On the Ground Floor—Spacious Entrance Hall, Back Parlour, Kitchen, Scullery, Larder, Pantry, China Closets, &c.
   On the 1st Floor—Drawing-room, 21 feet by 16 feet, Dining-room, 15 feet 6 inches by 13 feet 6 inches, Morning room, Bedroom, and W.C.
   On the 2nd Floor—Four Bedrooms, large Linen Closet, containing seven deep Linen Drawers and Shelves.
   On the 3rd Floor—Two Bedrooms.
   In the Basement—Extensive Cellarage and other conveniences.
   This property is held by Lease under the Corporation of Oxford for a term of 40 years, from Lady Day, 1868, and is subject to the following outgoings:— Reserved Rent £2 1s. 0d.; Capon Money 2s 6d; Land Tax: £3 6s 4d.
   Possession may be had of this Lot at the completion of this purchase.

The printer & publisher William R. Bowden took over the premises and the 1881 census shows him at the age of 61 living at No. 60 (then still numbered 59) with his wife Amelia and her sister, plus their servant. The business remained here until 1897.

Hartwell de la Garde Grissell, MA, FSA (1839–1907), who had converted to Roman Catholicism after graduating from Brasenose College and been Chamberlain to the Pope since 1869, lived here on the corner (presumably on the top two floors over the large shop) whenever he visited Oxford from Rome, and is listed at this address in directories from 1894. He created a private chapel full of relics and reliquaries in the building (see the Oxford Sausage, At the Relic Chapel in The Oxford Oratory. The photograph below (Historic England CC72/01900) dates from 1895 and shows what 60 High Street looked like at this time:

Grissell died in Rome on 10 June 1907 and was buried at Mickleham near Dorking on 3 July: see obituaries in The Times the following day, in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 15 June 1907, and in the Oxford Magazine for 1906/7/

The upstairs accommodation was unoccupied at the time of the 1901 census, but the 1911 census shows the thirteen rooms here occupied by John Hewer (43), an assistant inspector of telegraph messengers, and his wife Alice, who kept a boarding house here, plus their two daughters and a student boarder. They were still here in 1921.

After this shop was rebuilt in the late 1930s it opened as a Halford's Cycle store:

• Photograph of Halford's in 1949

At the end of the 1960s the shops at No. 59 and 60 were combined into one when the Oxford Travel Centre expanded to include both shops.