The Cabmen’s Shelters in St Giles
Original shelter, 1876–c.1915 (no longer surviving)
In October 1875 an appeal was launched for the earlier cabmen’s shelter in St Giles', and a committee was formed in December that year with the aim of making the shelter “worthy of the place which it is to occupy”.
This earlier shelter was built by William Brucker of St Bernard’s Road at a cost of £70, and was opened on 18 April 1876. It was a wooden structure on wheels, and was the first such shelter in the city of Oxford.
Initially it was placed at the north end of St Giles', at the point where it splits into the Woodstock and Banbury Roads. When at a meeting of the Oxford Local Board on 7 June 1976 the Cabmen's Shelter Committee reported that the cabmen had asked if could be moved to the principal cabstand at the south end of the street, it was agreed to limit the trial of the shelter at the north end to two months.
This photograph of the earlier shelter in 1880 (Historic England HT03433) shows that the cabstand was moved to the south end, in line with the Taylorian:
By 1889, the “Cab Stand at St Giles” was listed as a telephone subscriber with the number Oxford 58, and presumably the telephone was inside this shelter.
Left: This detail from a snowy 1908 postcard shows that the original 1876 cabmen’s shelter was then positioned just to the north of the Martyrs’ Memorial.
The railings to the north of the cab shelter still exist: they mark the entrance to the underground men’s public conveniences that were built in St Giles' in 1895, an event doubtless much welcomed by the cab drivers based here.
Second shelter, built in 1896 (survives as a takeaway)
(1) Initial position at the north end of St Giles, 1896–c.1915)
In November 1895 plans were submitted by S. Hutchins for an additional shelter, to be sited at the north end of St Giles. This second shelter originally had a table in the middle, seats and lockers around the sides, running water, and a sink.
The architect’s plans are shown below.
Reproduced with permission of Oxfordshire Studies (now the Oxfordshire History Centre)
In 1907 this second shelter still stood in the middle of the road to the south of St Giles’ Church, and was used as a temporary police station during St Giles’ Fair.
(2) At south end of St Giles' (from 1915)
By 1915 this second cab shelter originally placed at the north end of St Giles' had been moved southwards near St John’s College
This detail from a postcard shows the new position of the shelter, with a horse-cab waiting on the left
Later commercial use of the former cabmen's shelter in St Giles'
This cabmen's shelter that was moved to the south end of St Giles' still survives, but now stands out of the way of the traffic instead of in the midst of it.
It was the advance booking office of the St Giles's Taxi Rank until the late 1980s.
In 1992 planning permission (92/00094/NFH) was granted to Jem-i-ni Flowers for change of use to retail. The city council recognized its local historic importance and imposed strict conditions: wherever possible existing timbers should be salvaged and reused in the structure, any new timbers or panels should replicate the original structure, and it should be painted dark green to match colour samples taken from the existing structure, as this was the traditional colour of shelters of this type and the City Council wanted to see it maintained. Jem-i-ni duly converted it into a flower shop with toilet facilities; the renovation, which cost £20,000, won an Oxford Preservation Trust award.
From 1996 it was also used by the Oxford Rickshaw Company as its booking office and operations base, but that company went into liquidation in 1998.
When Jem-i-ni's closed in 2003 the shelter ceased to be a retail shop.
Former cab shelter on 29 November 2003, soon after the flower shop moved out
After a very brief period as a souvenir shop, since the summer of 2004 it has been a refreshment hut called Najar's Place, and in that year Bakir Ali-Najar was granted planning permission (04/01625/ADV) for advertisement panels and retractable awnings.
Former cab shelter on 5 February 2005
Other cabmen's shelters in Oxford
Eventually there were at least four other cabmen's shelters in Oxford at the following cab stands:
- Broad Street: ( 1885)
- Oriel Square
- GWR railway (1895): see Jackson's Oxford Journal of 26 October 1895, p. 8
- Park Town (1912): see Oxford Chronicle of 18 October 1912, p. 8
In London there was a Cabmen's Shelter Fund, designed not only to keep cabmen warm and dry but to keep them out of pubs and available when needed. Thirteen cabmen's shelters survive in London, and some of them are listed structures:
- Historic England: How did Victorian & Edwardian authorities deal with drunken cabbies
Desirability of a cabmen's shelter in St Giles'
In Jackson's Oxford Journal of 9 October 1875, “T. B.” wrote as follows about the desirability of a cabman's refuge in St Giles', stating that it would be “a means of preventing many a steady man from becoming a drunkard, and save many a life from premature death”:
