126: QL sandwich shop & HMG Law
No. 126 dates from the fifteenth century, and has a late seventeenth-century façade. It is the only remaining example of this type of architecture in Oxford. The structure of the fifteenth-century house can be seen inside, and the cellar is probably medieval.
It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1047260). It was in the parish of All Saints until that church was deconsecrated in 1971.
The first owner of this house was a bell-founder, and in 1350 it was owned by St Frideswide Abbey. It was refronted in the later seventeenth century, probably by Robert Pauling, a mercer who was Mayor in 1679.
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 126 was then in the occupation of a Mr Madge, and its frontage measured 6 yards 2 feet 9inches.
See Julian Munby, “126 High Street: The Archaeology and History of an Oxford House”, Oxoniensia 1975
Elizabethan wall painting in the offices of HMG Law
Thomas Mallam senior started a separate auctioneering business from his father’s business at St Aldate’s at this house, probably from the time of his marriage in about 1816, and in addition operated as a tobacconist and estate agent. He was also Mayor of Oxford in 1839 and 1846. He died in 1850. One of his sons (Thomas Mallam junior) founded a firm of solicitors here, and the other (James Richard Mallam) took over the auctioneering and estate agent side of the business. The solicitors (with new partners) are still in the same building (now accessed from the side lane), but Mallam’s auction house is now in St Michael Street.
Below: Engraving made in 1834 by Orlando Jewitt, showing No. 126 on the far left.
After the death of Thomas Mallam senior in 1850, the upstairs premises appear to have been let out. In 1851 they were occupied by a railway porter and his seamstress wife and their servant; in 1861 by Henry Ives, a solicitor’s clerk; in 1871 by John Bate Cooper, a bootmaker; and in 1881 by William Spindler, an auctioneer’s porter.
English Heritage: Photograph of 126–130 High Street in 1892
No one lived on these premises in 1911.
Date |
Occupiers of |
Rear of building |
Behind (126A) |
1823–1836 |
Mallam & Son, James R. Mallam & Son |
? Part of printing office |
? |
1837 |
Oxford Chronicle |
||
1838–1874 |
|||
1875–1886 |
Thomas Mallam, Solicitor T. & G. Mallam, Solicitors T. Mallam & Co Thomas Mallam & Co., Solicitors Thomas Mallam, Thomas Mallam, Solicitors Thomas Mallam & Reeves, Solicitors
Currently |
? |
|
1887–1890 |
Edward Bayly Doe, |
||
1891–1896 |
Joseph Vincent, Printer Latterly the |
||
1897–1899 |
Danish Dairy Co. |
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1900–1917 |
Goodwin, Foster &
Brown Ltd |
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1918–1920 |
– |
||
1921–1968 |
Kendall & Sons Ltd, |
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1969–1971 |
No listing |
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1973–1980 |
Alfred Marks Bureau |
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By 1993– |
Oxford Campus Stores |
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By 1998– |
Bonjour Sandwich Shop |
