1 St Giles' Street, Oxford

No. 1: Oxford Internet Institute

1 St Giles

1 St Giles’ Street is now the northernmost part of Balliol College. The house dates from c.1820 and is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1369451).

It was acquired by Balliol College in 1989 (with a 25-year leaseback agreement in favour of the occupants, Morrell, Peel, & Gamlen, Solicitors) after being a solicitors’ office for 175 years.

The southern tenement of the Dolphin Inn stood on the site of No. 1 St Giles’ Street. When the inn was sold by the city to Trinity College in 1786, this tenement passed into private hands. It was eventually purchased by James Morrell (1739–1807) , and in about 1820 his son, Baker Morrell (1778–1854), demolished the old house and erected the present 1 St Giles’ Street.

Baker Morrell went into practice here with his eldest son James (1802–1873). In 1866 his younger son, Frederick Joseph Morrell (1811–1822) took over the business, in partnership with his own son, Frederick Parker Morrell (1837–1808).

In 1913 Frederick Parker Morrell’s son Philip, the husband of Ottoline Morrell, transferred the property to his solicitor brother-in-law John Douglas Peel.

The building was purchased by Balliol College in 1989, and since 2001 has been the home of the Oxford Internet Institute.

Occupants of 1 St Giles’ Street listed in censuses and directories
1823– 1902	Baker Morrell, Attorney (1823–1846)
	Baker Morrell Esq and James Morrell jun. (1852) Mrs Morrell (1861)
	Frederick Joseph Morrell, William Biddle, R.S. Hawkins, Solicitors (1866)
	Frederick Joseph Morrell& Frederick Parker Morrell and R.S. Hawkins, Solicitors (1867)
	Morrell & Sons, Solicitors (1869) The Morrells did not actually live in this house. Benjamin Woollams (the under-butler at Trinity College) lived here from 1867 to 1879; then W. A. Mansfield, the next under-butler, from 1880 The Rev. W. Jackson lived here from 1866 to 1872; then Francis de Paravicini, tutor of Balliol College from 1875 to at least 1880
1902–1913	Morrell, Son, & Peel Solicitors
1914–1999	Morrell, Peel, & Gamlen Solicitors
2001 to present	Oxford Internet Institute