The first proper building in the street is Long Wall House (below), which dates from 1870. It has no number, but has its name inscribed over the door.
Exactly behind this houseand reached by the passage to the right of it is the Old School House at 1A Long Wall Street, and the same passage leads to Long Wall Cottage,behind Nos. 1–5 to the north.
From the 1850s to 1892, Magdalen College School occupied 58 and 59 High Street, and where Long Wall House now stands there was a passageway with a buildings on one side and the school chapel on the other.
Behind the present house, Long Wall Cottage was built in 1856–7 as an extension to the school. In 1868 the report of the Schools Inquiry Commission (published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 26 December 1868) first described the main school-room and playground (then still on the site of Magdalen College itself) and then described these buildings tucked in behind the other side of Long Wall Street:
All the remainder of the buildings, including the master’s house, dormitories, infirmary, chapel, &c., are on the other [west] side of Long Wall-street, in the west angle formed by that street and High-street. Standing on such a site they are, of course, somewhat cramped for room; but except for this defect, and that they are divided down the middle by Long Wall-street, which is a serious inconvenience, and must be an injury to discipline, the premises are fairly satisfactory.
Long Wall House itself was built in about 1870, and was part of the school until it moved to its new building on the east side of Cowley Place in 1894. It was then used as a university lodging house.
Since the 1970s the house and cottage behind have been an annexe of Magdalen College.
Occupants of Longwall House, Long Wall Street listed in directories etc. |
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Long Wall House |
Long Wall Cottage (behind) |
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1871–1889 |
Magdalen College School |
Not separately listed |
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1899 |
Miss Ellen Loxley |
Not separately listed |
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1901 |
George Benfield |
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1914 |
Misses Nixon & Oxborrow |
Miss Guiney |
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1921–1927 |
R. Edgar Clayton |
The Misses Warrack in 1921 Malcolm H. MacKeith |
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1928 |
Ralph D. Shirley |
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1935 |
John Henry Harley Mrs M. Harley (1947) |
Alfred William Cripps |
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1936–1949 |
Herbert Henry Edmund Craster |
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1952 |
William Charles Webb |
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1954–1960 |
Mrs R. S. May |
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1962–1967 |
No listing |
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1970 |
Magdalen College (annexe) |
L. S. J. May |
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1972–1973 |
David M. Davies |
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1976 |
Magdalen College annexe |
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On the sites today |
Magdalen College annexe |
Magdalen College annexe |
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Long Wall House and Long Wall Cottage in the censuses
Censuses before 1901
Not listed.
1901
Long Wall House
Miss Ellen Loxley (53) had a lodging house here with her sister Miss Emma Loxley (47). They had two servants.Long Wall Cottage
George Benfield (51), a builder & contractor, lived here with his wife Mary (51) and his children Elizabeth (25), Harriett (17), Henry (14), and William (9), plus one servant.
1911
Long Wall House
Ellen Loxley (63), a lodging-house keeper, lived here with her sister Emma (57), who was her assistant, and one general servant.Long Wall Cottage
Two servants occupied the house on census night: a cook and parlourmaid.
1921
Long Wall House
Rudolph Edgar Wycliffe Clayton (47), a boarding-house proprietor, lived here with his wife Gertrude (47) and their four children, plus three boarders.Long Wall Cottage
Helen Penelope Malcolm Warrack (47) was living here with her sister Catherine Lumsden Warrack (49), who was a nursing sister with the Military Nursing Service in India.
1939 Register
Long Wall House
The guest-house keepers John H. & Gwladys M. Harley are listed here with six guests.Long Wall Cottage
Miss Marion A. Burgess, the headmistress of a girls' school, was living here with two assistant mistresses.