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Buildings belonging to three colleges can be seen adjacent to each other in the above photograph:

• Just showing on the right is the triangular lintel of the house at 1 St Giles’ Street that since 1989 has belonged to Balliol College
• Then immediately north of it is the archway of the Dolphin Gateway of Trinity College, with rooms above (built by Sir Hubert Worthington in 1947–8). This is Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1183851)
• Then north of that is a neo-Georgian building with a balcony built by Edward Maufe in 1948 and a stretch of wall that are part of the Dolphin Quadrangle of St John’s College.

The buildings in this area were in St Mary Magdalen parish.

The Dolphin Inn, which was in St Mary Magdalen parish and according to the 1772 Survey of Oxford had a frontage of 28 yards, stood on the this site until 1794, next to the older part of St John's College.

The inn can be seen on the right-hand side of the engraving on the left, which was made in 1773.

The Dolphin was owned by the City of Oxford from 1660–1787: see Oxford City Properties, pp. 256–261.

There is an advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for a bull-baiting to be held at the inn on 6 and 7 September 1784, with a prize of a silver collar for the dog that penned the bull best.

In 1786 it was sold for £740 to Trinity College, and this is how that college acquired a passageway to St Giles'.

The old Dolphin Inn was demolished in about 1794.

 

Jackson's Oxford Journal of 10 January 1795 (p. 3c) advertised “A PLOT of GROUND, late the Site of the Dolphin Inn, situate in the Parish of St. Mary Magdalen, in the Suburbs of Oxford. For Particulars enquire of the Bursar of Trinity College.”

Three dwellings (allocated the numbers 2, 3, and 4 St Giles' Street) were built on the site in the 1830s. The photograph below (Historic England HT12746) was taken by Henry Taunt in 1875 and shows students looking out of the barred windows of these three dwellings, which were known as the South Buildings:

No. 2

On 9 October 1847 the accountant T. Smith solicited in Jackson's Oxford Journal “the patronage and support of the Gentleman and Tradesman of the University at 2 St Giles' Street. He was described as James Smith, Esq. when he died here on 9 November 1850 at that age of 83, and was stated to have worked for the Inland Revnue for 52 years.

At the time of the 1851 census the widow Mary Mason (76), described as a retired college servant, lived here with her own servant.

The architect William Wilkinson had his Oxford office here in 1856.

At the time of the 1861 census the college servant Moses Thomas Allnutt lived here with his wife Sarah and their eight children, plus two lodgers.

In 1871 No. 2 was occupied by the college servant Samuel T. Hughes (26) and his wife Emily and their daughter, plus their servant girl.

This house was listed as unoccupied in the 1881 census.

No. 3

 

At the time of the 1851 census Mrs Kitty Lee (71), a widow of independent means lived here with her servant.

At the time of the 1861 census the college servant William Uphill (60) lived here with his wife Mary Ann.

In 1871 No. 3 was occupied by the wine cellarman & lodging-house keeper George Johnson (66) and his wife Elizabeth and their daughter, plus two lodgers.

The 1881 census shows the gardenere Edward Carter (71) living here with his wife Catherine and their unmarried son Edward, who was also a gardenere.

No. 4

This house is also listed in directories from 1846 to 1861 as an office used by by Baker Morrell, the solicitor who lived at No. 1.

At the time of the 1851 census the journeyman carpenter John Parrott (46) lived here with his wife Harriet and their son, plus a lodger. He and his wife were still here in 1861, but he was now described as a college servant.

In 1871 the annuitant Miss Charlotte Wyatt (46) lived here at No. 4 with her two nieces and their servant.

This house is not listed in the 1881 census

The houses were demolished later in 1881, and on 17 September that year Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised a forthcoming auction of the following building materials:

The Old BUILDING MATERIALS of Three Houses, adjoining St. John's College, Oxford, comprising ten sets of rooms, known as the “South Buildings,” consisting of Stonesfield slates, lead, stone and bricks, flooring and joist, doors, sashes and frames, grates, chimeny pieces, coal bunkers, gas piping, stairs, and other Effects.

Iit was not until 1947/8 that Trinity's Dolphin Gate and St John's Dolphin Quadrangle were built on this site.