The Martyrs’ Memorial in 1842
This engraving of the Martyrs’ Memorial was published by J. Newman of Budge Row, London on 16 March 1842 and appears to have been sold as a sheet of notepaper. The original owner of this print (John Price) wrote underneath it:
“This Monument was erected and nearly completed when I visited Oxford in October 1842; also a Building on the West side of this Memorial for Reading Rooms, Sculpture & Picture Galleries &c at a Cost of Fifty Thousand Pounds, builder Messrs Bakers, Architect Cockerill of London.”
On the left are the 1826 Basevi Buildings of Balliol College in Magdalen Street East; the Salvin Buildings to the north were not built until 1853.
On the right are the shops of Magdalen Street West, with the small shops that formed the first Elliston & Cavell’s to the south. The tall building to the north must have been demolished to make way for the Randolph Hotel in 1866.
The memorial was not completed until 1843.
As Price mentions, the University Galleries (now the Ashmolean Museum) and the Taylor Institution were also in the process of being built when he visited Oxford, and were completed in 1845.
This photograph of the Martyrs' Memorial was taken by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1844, after railings had been installed around it.