General History
If you want to see the history of a specific building in St Giles’, select the “Tour the street” link and click on the building you want. The list below covers more general topics.
- Brief general history
- Listed Buildings of St Giles’ Street
- The Revd Tatham’s proposals for the disengaging and beautifying St Giles’ Street (1773)
- The inns and public houses of St Giles’ Street
- Parishes of St Giles’ Street
- Commercial premises in St Giles’ Street in 1823
- Yards and alleys running off St Giles’ Street
- Boundary stone in St Giles’ Street
- Gentlemen's toilets in St Giles’ Street
- Cabmen’s shelters
- The early schools of St Giles’ parish
Directory listings for St Giles’ Street
- Pigot’s 1823
- Pigot’s 1830
- Robson’s Commercial 1839 (first directory with street numbers)
- Post Office 1841
- Gardner’s 1852
- Kelly’s 1976 (the last street directory)
“He who enters the city, as Mr Green did, from the Woodstock
Road, and rolls down the shady avenue of St Giles’, between
St John’s College and the Taylor Buildings, and pass the graceful
Martyrs’ Memorial, will receive impressions such as probably no
other city in the world could convey.”
Cuthbert Bede, The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green
(1852)
“The South End of this … Street is called Fish-Street, and the other End of it the Corn-Market, from whence we pass into St. Giles's, which form a very spacious Street, and in some respects is preferable to either of the former, especially to such as love Retirement; thaving the Pleasure and Advantage of the Country, tho' connected with the Town. One End of the Street is handsomely terminated by St. Giles's Church, and adorned with the Front of St John's College
A New Pocket Companion for Oxford (1781)