The present numbering of Holywell Street has remained virtually unchanged since 1836, when the street was completely renumbered. Hence it has the old-fashioned style, which always runs 1-2-3-4-5 etc. along one side of the road, crosses over and continues down the other side, which means that the highest number is always opposite the lowest.
When the present numbers were allocated, Holywell Street had 99 houses or shops plus the Music Room, and no college buildings. No. 1 Holywell Street is at the north-east corner of the street at the junction with St Cross Road. Numbering then proceeds in an anti-clockwise circle, reaching 40 at the King’s Arms, crossing over and coming back to No. 100 near Longwall.
The larger, better houses were all on the north side of the street, with views at the back of the University Parks: hence there were only forty houses lining Holywell Street there, compared with sixty on the south side.
The first directory in which Holywell Street is numbered as it is today is Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839. The houses are unfortunately not numbered at all in the 1841 census but can be identified by matching the directory numbers can be matched with those of Hunt’s Directory of 1846 and the 1851 census. After that identification is easier, although there seem to be anomalies around yards, and in 1881 the census enumerator wrote: “The attention of the Local Board ought to be called to the confused way in which the houses in Holywell St are numbered”.
The numbers of the surviving houses appear to have remained the same until the last Kelly’s Directory of 1976.
Between the 1880s and 1890s, 32 of the houses in Holywell Street (almost a third) disappeared completely because of university and college development:
- 1883: Four houses (Nos. 41, 42, 43, and 44) demolished to make way for the Indian Institute
- 1872–1894: Twenty-six houses (Nos. 70–95) demolished to make way for New College’s new buildings
- 1891: Two houses (Nos. 22 and 23) demolished to make way for Mansfield Road.
In 1976 and 1981 the façades of Nos 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, and 50 were incorporated into Hertford College’s Holywell Quad.
Many of the surviving former houses are now part of the four colleges which were once adjacent to the street and are now part of it (Wadham, Hertford, Harris Manchester and New College), while Merton College (which once owned the whole Manor of Holywell) uses many of the houses as student annexes.
There are now appear to be only six buildings in Holywell Street that are not used by the University or its colleges: one is part of the Kings’ Arms pub, one is a hotel, one is a café, and three are shops (a photocopier’s, a newsagent’s, and a delicatessen).
The parish numbering system before 1836
Holywell Parish helpfully numbered its houses long before it became obligatory, starting with No. 1 where 1 Holywell Street is today and continuing west along the north side of the street as today and then returning on the south side. The house numbers originally only reached 60, compared to 100 by the 1830s. The first example found of this earlier numbering system in Jackson's Oxford Journal was on 25 April 1795.
The number change took place at some point between 28 May and 9 July 1836.
Jonathan Lowndes of Jackson's Oxford Journal helpfully gave the old address of 36 Holywell Street on 28 May 1836 and the new one No. 60 on 9 July 1836.
As the layout of buildings had not changed radically since the eighteenth century, the numbers must have been allocated differently from today, perhaps with groups of houses in one building being allocated just one number. It is possible that the numbers referred to Merton College leases, as a tenement on the south side of Holywell a few doors from the corner of Broad Street was known as the Twenty-seventh house in their lease books.
Three surviving old numerals
Obviously most of the old numbers were removed to avoid confusion, but three of the old roman numerals that were carved into the stone lintels remain:
The present No. 3 Holywell Street (was 3 and 4)
The lintel of the present No. 3 Holywell Street has its pre-1836 number III (3) on the right of its lintel and repeated in the middle, and the number IV (4) on the left. This perhaps indicates that the house was divided into two, with the bulk on the right numbered 3 and a smaller section on the left numbered 4.
The present No. 26 Holywell Street (formerly 18)
The present No. 26 Holywell Street also has its pre-1836 number XVIII (18) engraved over its door. This is preceded by the letters H.P (Holywell Parish).
The present No. 53 Holywell Street (formerly 32)
The present No. 53 Holywell Street is engraved with its old number XXXII (33), and this squares with a newspaper report of 1807 which mentions that the house then described as No. 32 Holywell Street was opposite the Holywell Music Room.
Houses so far identified (including the above)
North side
- The former 3 & 4 Holywell is now 3 Holywell Street
- The former 15 Holywellt is almost certainly 20/21 Holywell Street
- The former 18 Holywell is now 26 Holywell Street
South side
- The former 32 Holywell is now 53 Holywell Street
- The former 36 Holywell is now 60 Holywell Street
Numbers not yet correlated
These unidentified old numbers can be found in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
- 9 July 1825: Mrs Arnett (widow of T. Arnett) announced that she had moved with her school from New Road to No. 30 Holywell and on 24 December 1831: Miss Bampton advertised her day school at 30 Holywell.
- On 7 January 1826 the upholder, appraiser, and auctioneer William Andrew Dicks (who later moved to the Holywell Music Room when it closed in 1840) announced that he had commenced business at 57 Holywell Street, which would have been at the south-east end.
- 29 March 1828: The Mesdames Betteris announced that they had commenced a millinery and dress business at 37 Holywell Street, which would be in the area of the present Nos. 61/62
- 22 November 1828: Advertisement of a sale at No. 19 (which would have been on the north side of the road) of the property of a gentleman who was moving out.
- 4 October 1834: 22 Holywell Street was advertised for sale, and occupied by J. Lockey: this was described as having no front door when was advertised to let (but the likely houses in the area all have a front door):
All that capital HOUSE, No. 22, in Holywell-street, Oxford, late in the occupation of Mr. A. Lockey; comprising, on the ground floor, one good parlour, besides kitchen and all other suitable accommodation; two sitting rooms with bed rooms, &c. in the first story, and other excellent sleeping rooms over them.
The entrance to the House is by a door in the carriage gateway, there being none to the street.