No. 4 Long Wall Street is a narrow mid-eighteenth-century three-storeyed building with a Welsh slate roof continuous with No. 5 to the north. The sash windows date from the nineteenth century. The house is Grade II listed (List Entry 2047213) and is owned by Magdalen College.
Historic picture showing this house (second from right)
Nos. 1–5 Long Wall Street were offered for sale in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 1 July 1865:
FOR SALE. MR W. H. HOWARD has received instructions from the Proprietor to SELL by AUCTION, in the course of next month, in lots,— All that desirable FREEHOLD ESTATE, Land Tax redeemed; consisting of Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, Long Wall-street, in the parish of St. Peter-in-the-East, in the City of Oxford.
The Property overlooks the beautiful Grove of Magdalen College, and is not, therefore, likely at any time to be blocked out by inferior buildings, which must be a great desideratum in the purchase of property for residences, whether for investment or occupation.
On 15 July 1865 closer descriptions were given of each house:
Lot 3 (adjoining Lot 2), will comprise the Dwelling House and Premises, being No. 4, in the occupation of Mr Huggins, at the annual rent of £15.
On 23 March 1867 the houses were advertised for sale again:
Lot 3.— A FREEHOLD DWELLING, No. 4, adjoining, occupied by Mr. Huggins, containing in the basement three cellars (with street coal-grating on the ground floor), entrance passage, good front sitting room, kitchen and closet, back kitchen, &c, in court yard; on the first floor a sitting room, front and back bed rooms, and water closet; and two front rooms above. Rental, £29.
Joseph Margolyes (the father of Miriam Margolyes) originally had his doctor's surgery at Cherwell House near the Plain, but at the end of the 1950s Magdalen College demolished this Georgian house to replace it with the the Waynflete building and the shop now occupied by Sainsbury's Local. The college eventually allowed him to have 4 Long Wall Street for his surgery, and Miriam's mother Ruth let out the rooms upstairs to students. He retired in 1969, but his surgery continued to be listed here until the last Kelly's Directory (1976).
Magdalen College now uses it as a student house.
Occupants of 4 Long Wall Street listed in directories etc. |
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1846 |
William Colcutt |
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1851 |
Thomas Hackshaw, Hairdresser |
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1861–1865 |
William Huggins |
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1866 |
No listing |
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1871–1881 |
Mrs Elizabeth Best |
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1889–1891 |
Samuel J. Hughes |
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1899–1901 |
Henry Kingston, Lodging House (also at No. 5) Mrs Emma Kingston (by 1901) |
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1914–1933 |
Harry Reginald Annis |
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1935–1936 |
Harold William Phillips |
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1938–1940 |
Miss C. E. Parr |
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1941 |
No listing |
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1943–1945 |
Otto Pick, Dental surgeon |
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1947 |
Alex Inglesby |
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1949–1958 |
A. R. Kirwin |
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1960–1976 |
Joseph Margolyes, M.B., Ch.B.Glas. |
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At 4 Long Wall Street today |
Magdalen College annexe |
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4 Long Wall Street in the censuses
1841
The 1841 census does not give house numbers, but it is possible to give a tentative assignment based on census order and known inhabitants
John Thatcher (60), a college servant, appears to have lived here with Mary (60) and Mary and George (both about 20).
1851
Thomas Hackshaw (30), a hairdresser, lived here with his wife Eliza (31) and his daughter Eliza (5 months). They had a 13-year-old servant girl and a lodger.
1861
Richard Baker (44), a private waiter, lived here with his wife Mary (34), who was a dressmaker. They had a grocer’s assistant boarding with them.
1871
Elizabeth Best (63), a widow, lived here with her daughter Maria (2) and a lodger.
1881
Elizabeth Best (72), a widow, still lived here, now with her granddaughter Annie Best (14) .
1891
Samuel Hughes (33), a college servant, lived here with his wife Cicely (35) and his children Rowland (9) and Emily (4). They had one servant.
1901
Mrs Emma Kingston (55), a lodging house keeper, lived here with her niece and nephew, Emily and George Fuller. Her husband Henry was not at home on census night. The family is jointly listed at Nos. 4 and 5 Long Wall Street.
1911
No listing.