Merton Street
The present Merton Street is L-shaped: it runs southwards from the High Street and then turns sharp right past Merton College. The Eastgate Hotel is to the east and the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art to the west.
Originally, however, the north–south section of Merton Street shown above was known as Coach & Horses Lane, after a pub that was on the west side; and then from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth century it was known as King Street. This part of the street was in the parish of St Peter-in-the-East.
The rest of the street around the corner running east to west was originally known as St John Baptist’s Street or just St John Street (after the St John the Baptist Church which used to share the Merton College Chapel building). St John Street became known as Merton Street in the nineteenth century (possibly to avoid confusion with St John Street in north Oxford). This part of the street was in two parishes: the eastern part in that of St Peter-in-the-East, and the western part in that of St John-the-Baptist.
Map showing King Street in 1876 (click on Full Screen and enlarge). The pub called the Flying Horse that can be seen facing the High Street was later renamed the Eastgate Hotel, and there is another pub called the Coach & Horses in the middle of the west side of the street.
In the twentieth century the whole of the L-shaped road became known as Merton Street. The part of the street around the corner that runs parallel with the High still has its original cobbles, which date from the eighteenth century onwards: the road surface is Grade II listed (list entry 1119637).
The following businesses are listed under King Street in Pigot’s Directory for 1823/4:
- Taverns and Public Houses:
Coach & Horses: T. HUNT (west side, later 23 King Street)
Nag’s Head: M. THORNTON (east side, later 17 King Street) - Watch & Clock Makers Richard PEARSON King Street
and the following were around the corner in St John Street (Merton Street):
- Boot & Shoemakers: Richard HURDIS
- Tailors & Drapers William GILES
- Taverns and Public Houses: George & Dragon: William VENABLES
The photograph below (Historic England CC72/01907) dates from c.1883 and shows the houses at 1, 2, & 3 Merton Street (on the corner of Magpie Lane, then called Grove Street) shortly before they were demolished to make way for a new four-bay range by T. G. Jackson for Corpus Christi College:
On 6 June 1891 a notification of a forthcoming auction of the five houses at 1–5 King Street (along with a row around the corner in the High Street) to be held in London appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
CITY OF OXFORD
HIGHLY-IMPORTANT FREEHOLD HOTEL AND RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY,
Occupying an unrivalled position the corner of KING STREET & HIGH STREET,
The whole forming a grand site for a speculative Rebuilding.It comprises the Old-established Fully-licensed EASTGATE HOTEL, together with the adjoining SHOPS, PRIVATE HOUSES, AND STABLING, being Nos. 71, 72, and 73, HIGH STREET, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, KING STREET [now part of Merton Street], having a frontage of 105ft. 4in. to the latter, and embracing an entire superficial area of about 7810ft. The property now produces from old rentals an income of £370 per annum, but the eligible position which it occupies in one of the best business positions of the City, renders it peculiarly adapted as a site for a superior Hotel, with Shops on the ground floor, and is thus rendered capable of producing a largely-increased income, and affords an opportunity to capitalists seldom to be met with for the purchase of a Freehold either for investment or speculation.
The Eastgate Hotel and the adjoining houses were bought by Magdalen College. In 1964 the Eastgate Hotel was granted planning permission to incorporate 23 & 25 Merton Street into the hotel (64/13952/A_H).
In 2017 planning permission (17/00188/FUL) was granted for the erection of another detached building to provide seventeen additional bedrooms at the Eastgate Hotel.
Street numbering in 1899 before King Street and Merton Street were merged
- King Street southwards from the High Street to 19 Merton Street:
5, 6, 7, [8], 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, [18], [19] - Merton Street South side (eastwards from Oriel Street to 15 King Street:
Just Corpus Christi and Merton Colleges, as today - Merton Street North side eastwards from Magpie Lane (then called Grove Street):
Corpus Hall, 4, 5, 6, [7], 8, (here is Logic Lane), 9, 10, [11], 12, Local Examinations Delegacy), 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Street numbering in 1914 after the two streets were merged to become just Merton Street
- Merton Street North side (eastwards from Magpie Lane)
Corpus Hall, 4, 5, 6 (here is Logic Lane), 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, [19] - Merton Street South side (eastwards from Corpus Christi College):
Merton College, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
Plaques and letter boxes in the original part of Merton Street
Three buildings have plaques to famous people who lived and/or worked in Merton Street:
- Thomas Willis (1621–1675) at Beam or Biham Hall
- Colonel Henry Marten (1602–1680), at 3 Merton Street
- Anthony Wood (1632–1695) at Postmasters' Hall
The original part of Merton Street also has two Victorian wall post boxes:
