43 Broad Street, Oxford

No. 43: Former house

43 Broad Street

No. 43 Broad Street was near the centre of the thirteen houses dating from the first half of the seventeenth century that were that were demolished to make way for the New Bodleian Library in the late 1930s.

In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 43 was then in the occupation of a Mr Bolton, and its frontage measured 7 yards 1 feet 1 inch.

George Dennis Dudley, a glazier, is listed at No. 43 in the 1841 census, and is still here in retirement in 1861 (aged 74) with wife and two servants. He died in 1863, and his heirs assigned the lease of this house to Dr Acland at No. 41. Acland bought the house from Christ Church in 1866, and continued to let it out, although he incorporated some of the back houses into his own house.

In 1881 it was occupied by John Hughes, described here as a lodging house keeper but listed in directories as Keeper of the Sheldonian Theatre. He lived here with his wife and four children, and their general servant and lodger.

Occupants of 43 Broad Street listed in directories
1829	Mrs Dudley
1846, 1852, 1861	George Dennis Dudley, Plumber & glazier
1866–1869	W.C.C. Bramwell, Architect & Surveyor
1871–1884	John Hughes, Keeper of the Sheldonian Theatre
1887–1898	The Misses Pullee (Miss Ann Pullee from 1889) University & Family Lodgings
1899	Mrs Lake, University Lodgings
1900–1911	Harold Arthur Prichard, MA, Lecturer, Trinity College
1912–1914	Revd Frederick Homes Dudden, MA Chaplain, Lecturer in Theology, & Fellow of Lincoln College
1915–1923	Norman Whatley, MA, Fellow, Dean, & Lecturer, Hertford College
1926–1929	Revd Henry Charles Wace, MA, Fellow, Chaplain, & Bursar, Brasenose College
1930	Cyril William Carter, MA University Demonstrator in Biochemistry, Fellow, Praelector in Physiology, Dean, & Magister Puerorum, Queen’s
1932	Rev. Montague Summers, MA
1934–1936	Rev. Frederick Davis Sparks Hedley, BA
This house was demolished with twelve neighbouring houses in 1937 to make room for the New Bodleian Library

See the bound typescript in the Bodleian Library entitled “The Demolished Houses of Broad Street and the Freeborn Family” (1943), attributed to Emily Sarah Freeborn, and the webpage by Alan Simpson which reproduces some of the material in it.