No. 39a: House belonging to the University
No. 39A only dates from 1861, when it was built in a gap between the former No. 39 and No. 40. It is in St Giles' parish.
It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1047143). Historic England describes it as 39A, which was the number it had until 1954. It then took the number 39 that was no longer used by St Benet’s Hall.
The right-hand door of the house led to the diocesan registry of the Bishop of Oxford, a building attached to the back of the house. The main part of the house appears to have been let out at that time, but the numbering is confusing.
Right: The arms over the doorway on the north side of this building are those of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford from 1845 to 1869. They show the following:
Sinister: The arms of the See of Oxford: Sable, namely a fesse argent, in chief three demi ladies couped at the waist, heads affrontee, proper, (ducally) crowned Or, arrayed and veiled of the second; in base an ox also argent, horned and hoofed gold, passing a ford barry wavy of six argent and azure
Dexter The arms of the Wilberforce family: An eagle sable charged with a mullet argent [a silver star]
At the top: A bishop's mitre.
Around the edge: A garter inscribed with the motto of the order of the garter, HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE
At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, the site of both this house and of St Benet’s Hall was occupied by Coster’s yard and stable, with a frontage measuring 32 yards 2 feet 6 inches. When the large pair of houses to the north were built in 1830, it looks as though the site of this house became part of the garden of No. 40 for thirty years.
The 1871 census shows the widow Mrs Ann Castle (69) living at No. 39 with one servant. In 1881 she was here with her 37-year-old daughter Catherine, plus a servant. Mrs Castle died in 1888 and her daughter Miss Catherine Castle continued to live here, and the 1891, 1901, 1911, and 1921 censuses show her living here with a general servant. She remained here until her death at the age of 83 near the end of 1926..
Occupants of 39A (now loosely 39) St Giles’ Street listed in censuses and directories |
|
1861 |
James Saunders |
1866–1867 |
C. Buckeridge and E. G. Bruton, Architects |
1869–1926 |
Mrs Ann Castle (1887–1889) |
1928–1930 |
Ronald Fielding Dodd, ARIBA |
1932 |
Daryl Cedric Corry, Surgeon |
1934–1937 |
Mrs Hogarth |
1939–1968 |
Mrs Ethel Burney |
By 1973 to 1980+ |
Richard Ellmann Oxford University Gramophone Society at 39A at back 1969–1980+ |
1999–present |
Ronald Bush Software Engineering Centre at 39A at the back since 1999, |
This appears to have been used as a lodging house when Mrs and Miss Castle lived here. When the actor Ivan Freebody Simpson signed up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 9 June 1916, he gave his next-of-kin as his daughter, Pamela Simpson (aged 11) at this address.
By the time of the 1939 Register the house was occupied by Ethel Wordsworth Burney (described as a bibliographer) and Rosalind Louisa Moss (described as an Egyptological research worker). A University of Cambridge student also lived with them
Edwin Laming Macadam and his parents were offered a home at this house when they were homeless after the war by “Burney and Moss”, as these two women who lived there were known. His father was the Egyptologist Miles Frederick Laming Macadam. Edwin writes:
Rosalind Moss was actually trained as an anthropologist, but her great love was Egypt, and she and Ethel Burney (the widow of a Professor of Hebrew) undertook many trips there to verify inscriptions and other matters for various books they wrote together; an indefatigable pair, and fortunately with a private income to enable them to do so. They were also extremely kind to various young academics, Father being one of the objects of their many kindnesses. To some extent he worked with them – at the Griffith Institute mainly…. Father left Oxford in early 1948, when we moved to Durham where he became Reader in Egyptology at the University.