No. 41: Vacant
41 St Giles’ Street was built in about 1700. It is a Grade II* listed building (List Entry No. 1047144) and lies in St Giles' parish.
At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, No. 41 is recorded as being in the occupation of the Revd Mr Lowry, with its frontage measuring 11 yards 0 feet 11 inches.
Samuel Collingwood, who had been superintendant of the Clarendon Press since 1796, owned this house and died here at the age of 78 on 1 January 1841 (obituary published in Jackson's Oxford Journal the next day). At the time of the 1841 census it was was occupied by his widow Ann Collingwood (aged c.70) and her son Samuel Collingwood junior (26), plus their two servants.
Soon after that census the family let the house out to the Revd Robert Walker, whose tenancy expired on 25 March 1849. A week later on 31 March 1849 a forthcoming sale by public competition of eight houses that had belonged to Samuel Collingwood was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. No. 41 was included and was described thus:
All that very substantial Stone-built FREEHOLD RESIDENCE, the front inclosed with iron palisades, and situate in St. Giles’s-street, formerly occupied by the late Saml. Collingwood, Esq. and lately by the Rev. R. Walker, whose tenancy expired at Lady Day last; containing entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, six principal bed rooms, water closet on landing, nursery, three servants’ bed rooms, with back staircase thereto, large kitchen, wash-house, brew-house, yard, and all other suitable domestic offices, with capital and extensive cellarage in the basement; also a large walled flower and fruit garden attached.
Alderman William Ward appears to have bought the house, and he and his family lived here for about seventy years. At the time of the 1851 census Ward was described as a coal and slate merchant employing seven men: he and his wife had eight children aged between one and eighteen, and they were looked after by three servants. In 1861 four of the children were still at home, and another son had been born in the intervening ten years; and in 1871 six children were at home. By 1881 Mrs Ward had died and William (74) lived here with his five spinster daughters and three servants. He died in 1889, and at the time of the 1891 census the house was occupied by his daughters Ann, Sarah, Eliza, Edith, and Alice, and their two servants. The 1901 and 1911 censuses show just three sisters living here (Ann, Sarah, and Eliza Ward) with two servants. Ann died in January 1915, Sarah in December 1916, and Eliza in August 1917.
The house is not listed in the 1921 census.
The ground floor was taken over by offices in 1928, but there was still private accommodation. The 1939 Register shows Enid Starkie, described as a university lecturer and teacher, living her on her own.
It then housed various university departments.
Occupants of 41 St Giles’ Street listed in censuses and directories |
|
| To 1841 | Samuel Collingwood |
1841–1849 |
Revd Robert Walker |
1851–1916 |
William Ward, Esq, Alderman, J.P. (1851–1889) |
1918–1923 |
No listing |
1924–1927 |
Miss M. V. Nugent |
1928–1935 |
H.M. Inspector of Taxes |
1937–1939 |
Oxford Society |
1941–1945 |
Oxford Emergency Medical
Service |
1947–1952 |
Oxford University Committee
for Appointments |
1954–1972 |
Oxford University Appointments Committee |
1973–1976 |
University of Oxford Mathematics Institute Annexe |
c.1990–c.2016 |
|
2017–2025 |
Part of Oxford Internet Institute |
2025–2026 |
Vacant |