Nos. 12–13: Lamb & Flag Inn
Originally the Lamb & Flag Inn only occupied No. 12, the large building on the right, but in 1960 it expanded into the ground floor and basement of No. 13, the taller narrow building to the left. Since that date it has occupied both properties.
The inn is owned by St John's College and lies in St Giles' parish.
To the right of the pub is Lamb & Flag Passage, where three households lived in the nineteenth century. The only entrance to the inn is at the side of this passage (which also provides a pedestrian route through to Museum Road), but No. 13 to the left still has a door facing St Giles.
No. 12 on the right (the original site of the inn)
Grade II listed (List Entry Nos. 1338861)
An earlier Tudor building on the site of 12 St Giles' belonged to Godstow Abbey, but since 1573 St John's College has owned the freehold of the site. Henry Harbert/Harbard, who opened an inn here in 1613, had previously run a hostelry on the south side of St John's College called the Lamb, and he brought the name with him. The lamb and flag are the two symbols of St John the Baptist.
At the time of the Survey of Oxford in 1772, No. 12 was in the occupation of Mrs Hicks (with its frontage recorded as 9 yards 2 feet 6 inches).
In the early nineteenth century many auctions (of houses, land, horses, and tolls) took place in the Lamb & Flag. The landlord in the 1820s was George Randell. He died in early 1830, and his widow Ann Randall (née Kirby) put the following notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 20 February 1830:
Hall’s Brewery took a lease on the pub from St John’s in 1829.
On 16 May 1835 George Randell junior announced that he had taken over his father's inn, adding that “Gentlemen from the country will find good accommodation for their horses, as his Stables are roomy and convenient, with lock-up Coach-houses, &c.”.
By August 1840 the innkeeper of the Lamb & Flag was Samuel Bough, and the 1841 census shows him, aged 28, living here with his wife Ellen, an ostler, and two female servants.
In 1849 William Bayzand, formerly of the Maidenhead Inn in Turl Street, took over the Lamb & Flag and inserted an advertisement to that effect in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 8 September 1849, adding:
Well-aired Beds, extensive Stables, and Lock-up Coach-houses.— Dealer in Hay, Corn, &c.
In the 1851 census William Bayzand (42) was described as the innkeeper here and the employer of one man, and lived with his wife Elizabeth and their six children, plus two house servants. By 1861 he was calling himself a hotel keeper and his eldest son, also William (26), was a now a cab proprietor; an ostler lived with them.
At the time of the 1871 census the publican & innkeeper Thomas Wood (45) lived here with his wife Ann and their ten children, plus two boarders and a servant.
In 1881 the landlord of the Lamb & Flag was John Knibbs, aged 49, who lived here with his wife, a barmaid, and a general servant.
The 1891 census shows John Rhodes (37), described as a hotel & livery stable keeper, living at the Lamb & Flag with his wife and son plus a barmaid and a servant. The situation was similar in 1901.
At the time of the 1911 census the licensed victualler of the Lamb & Flag was Albert Price (59) and he lived here with his daughter Lilian (26), who was described as a beer maker, and Ivy (15), who assisted in the business, and their barmaid. The family of four was still here in 1921.
The 1939 Register shows the licensed victualler Stanley M. Richards living here with his wife Constance and their daughter, plus a barman.
No. 13 (the tall narrow house next door to the pub)
Grade II listed (list entry 1047134). It is described as “newly built” in 1870.
At the time of the Survey of Oxford in 1772, the former building at No. 13 was in the occupation of Mr Williams (with the very narrow frontage of 3 yards 2 feet 2 inches).
In 1841 the former building here was occupied by a lady of independent means, Miss Mary Bunce and her servant girl. Miss Bunce was still there in 1851, with her widowed older sister Mrs Letitia Betts (85) and a servant. In 1861 Miss Bunce (84) was still at No. 13 with one servant and two lodgers (Mrs Sarah Bowell, a railway share proprietor aged 64, and Elizabeth Bliss, a widowed gentlewoman aged 79 ). Miss Bunce died here at the age of 91 on 13 February 1867, and two months later the former property on this site was put up for sale, with this advertisement appearing in Jackson's Oxford Journal for 20 April 1867:
Soon after this 1867 sale the house was rebuilt as a shop with living accommodation upstairs.
On 14 March 1868 Miss Procter who had formerly been the manage at Elliston & Cavell's shop, announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that she would be opening a shop here on 19 March selling millinery and mantles. While she was in occupation, on 27 August 1870, the building was described in Jackson's Oxford Journal as “a newly-built dwelling house with commanding shop front”, and the full auction notice the following week read:
VALUABLE Leasehold Newly-built DWELLING HOUSE and BUSINESS PREMISES,
Situate No. 13, ST. GILES'S STREET, OXFORD....All that newly-built DWELLING HOUSE, containing a commanding front shop, kitchen, scullery, and pantry on the ground floor, with six bed rooms and sitting rooms on the first, second, and third floors; capital cellarage in the basement, small yard at the back, two w.c.'s, and other conveniences, now in the occupation of Miss Procter, milliner, at a Rental of £70 per annum.
This Property is in a first-class situation, and will be further improved by the removal of the Lamb and Flag Inn, which will shortly take place, to make the new approach to the Parks, when it will become an attractive corner shop; and early possession may be had. It is held by Lease under the Master and Scholars of Balliol College, Oxford, for a term of 70 years, from the 20th of September, 1867, at a Reserved Rent of £10 per annum
In the event, the drastic removal of the Lamb & Flag next door at No. 12 did not take place, leaving No. 13 wedged in and not the corner shop that had been envisaged.
On 25 February 1871 Miss Procter announced that she would shortly remove her business from 13 to 70 St Giles' Street, and on 18 March 1871 the premises were advertised as being to let:
TO MILLINERS, DRESSMAKERS & OTHERS.
TO LET, with possession at Lady Day,—No. 13 St. Giles's-street, Oxford, a 10-roomed House, with an attractive Front Shop, where the Business of a Milliner and Dressmaker has been very successfully carried on for the last three years by the present tenant, who is removing to more extensive premises.
The property was unoccupied at the time of the 1871 census, but later in that year the tailor & hosier David Price Clifford took over the shop at No. 13. He can be seen living here at the time of the 1881 census with his wife, three children, his aunt, and his shop assistant, plus a cook and a housemaid. He was still here with his family in 1891, plus an assistant and a servant.
John Frederick Furby, a tailor, hatter, & shirtmaker, occupied No. 13 from March 1893, but he went bankrupt in the autumn of 1894. He said that he had taken the business on representations that subsequently turned out to be fictitious, having been told the house was licensed for university lodgers.
On 5 May 1894 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised a forthcoming auction of the long lease from Balliol College of 13 St Giles' Street:
13, SAINT GILES', OXFORD.
LONG-LEASEHOLD SHOP, AND PREMISES,
Situate in the best part of the City
TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, by Messrs. J. R. MALLAM and SON,
at the Golden Cross Hotel, on Tuesday, 29th May, 1894, at Four o'clock punctually.The Premises, which have a frontage to the street of 14 feet, consist of, on the ground floor, a lofty shop with bay window, front private entrance, sitting room, kitchen, yard, outhouse with workroom over, back yard, w.c., large cellar throughout basement; on the first floor, excellent drawing room, dining room, and bed room; on the second floor, 2 bed rooms and w.c.; and on the third floor, large bed room.
The Property is in the occupation of Mr. J. F. Furby, at a rental of £80 per annum, on lease, of which about four years are unexpired. It is held by lease under Balliol College for a term of 70 years from 1867, at a ground rent of £10 per annum....
At the time of the 1901 census only a servant was at home at No. 13.
In 1903 13 St Giles' Street was purchased by Father John O'Fallon Pope, Master of the predecessor to Campion Hall at 11 St Giles' Street. The 1921 census shows Joseph Rickaby (75), the Chaplain of Campion Hall, living here with three boarders (a Belgian missionary and two students) and a butler and a footman.
It was probably sold to St John's College when Campion Hall moved to Brewer Street in 1936.
Between 1937 and 1955 No. 13 was the office of the Registrar of Births & Deaths for the Oxford sub-district, before it moved across the road to No. 42. Hence there is no listing for the building in the 1939 Register.
The document below, kindly supplied by Thomas Gadney, gives the names of the Registrars and the hours that the registration office was open here at 13 St Giles' Street in 1948:
Nos. 12 & 13 since 1960
in 1960 the Lamb & Flag at No. 12 expanded to include the ground floor and basement of No. 13, the taller narrow building to the left, and has occupied both Nos. 12 & 13 since that date (with student accommodation upstairs).
By 1963 it was a Phipps pub (a Northampton Brewery later taken over by Watneys).
In 1997 St John's College took back the licence and offered financial support to D.Phil. students from the pub’s profits by offering Lamb & Flag studentships worth up to £12,000 a year.
On 31 January 2021 the Lamb & Flag (Oxford) Ltd, a company owned by St John's College, announced that the company would close and cease operations at the public house, but that it would remain in the college's ownership.
The pub closed temporarily, but the lease was purchased in September 2021 by a Community Interest Company called The Inklings, and it reopened in October 2022.
The "Heritage statement – incl design and access statement” listed under
the Documents tab of the planning application for the internal alterations
made in 2002 (22/02817/LBC) gives a fuller history of the inn.
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Occupants of 12 & 13 St Giles' Street listed in censuses and directories |
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Date |
12 St Giles |
13 St Giles |
By 1823–1840 |
Lamb & Flag: |
? |
1840–1841 |
Lamb & Flag: |
Mary Bunce |
1841–1848 |
Lamb & Flag: |
Mrs Letitia Betts |
1848 |
Lamb & Flag: |
? |
1849, 1852 |
Lamb & Flag: |
John Looker,
Attorney |
To 1857 |
John Brooks |
|
1861 |
Mrs Mary Bunce |
|
1862–1867 |
Lamb &
Flag: |
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No. 13 REBUILT c.1868 |
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1868–1871 |
Miss Procter |
|
1872–1876 |
David Price
Clifford with |
|
1880–1882 |
Lamb & Flag: |
|
1889–1893 |
Lamb & Flag Inn |
|
1893–1894 |
John Frederick Furby |
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1898–1891 |
Hatch & Co |
|
1900–1910 |
No listing: Part of Campion Hall at No. 11 from 1903 |
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1911–1937 |
Lamb & Flag Inn Albert Paine (1911–1923) Lamb & Flag Hotel Frank J. E. Richards (1925–1929) Landlords not listed in |
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1937–1955 |
Offices including that of the Registrar of |
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1960–present |
Lamb & Flag Inn |
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