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No. 51 has a late eighteenth-century front on what is probably an early seventeenth-century core. It is jointly Grade II listed with No. 50 next door on the right, which is part of the same building (List Entry No. 1047106). It lies in St Giles' parish, and was owned by University College until 2004.

In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 51 is recorded as then being in the occupation of Mr James, with its frontage measuring 4 yards exactly.

At the time of the 1851 census this house was occupied by Miss Sarah Jane Proudman (25), who was a dressmaker, and her 21-year-old sister.

The 1861 census lists George Barber, a tobacconist aged 29, here with his wife.

By 1864 the Misses J. & E. Clarke ran a Berlin repository here at their house. On 17 November 1866 a forthcoming auction of the lease of this house from University College was advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal, together with cottages behind and a garden presented as a building opportunity:

Lot 1. —The DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISES, No. 51, St. Giles's-street, Oxford, containing passage entrance, front shop with ante-room attached, and back parlour, on the ground floor; a remarkably pleasant front sitting room and two other rooms on the first floor, and two rooms over the same; a capital kitchen in the basement; a small garden and wash-house at the back, with side entrance thereto from the street, and other conveniences, in the occupation of Miss Clarke, at a rent of £40 per annum.

Lot 2.—FIVE COTTAGES, with a small Garden to each, at the back of Lot 1, and approached through the “Eagle and Child” yard, from St. Giles's-street, respectively occupied by Messrs. Buckingham, Parker, Harris, Cooke, and Hollyoak; also a large GARDEN at the west end of the last-described, very suitable for the erection of several other cottages, now so much needed in this locality, in the occupation of Mr. Earle, the whole producing a rental of upwards of £4 per annum.

The 1871 census shows Miss Elizabeth Clarke (46) running her wool shop here and living with one servant.

In 1881 No. 51 was occupied by Edmund Narroway, a 31-year-old fruiterer & greengrocer, and his wife Adeline and their four children.

From 1884 hairdresser James Green ran his hairdressing business here, and the 1891 census shows him at the age of 45 living over his shop with his wife Annie and their servant girl.

The 1901 census shows the medical masseur Thomas S. Whiting (41) living here with his wife Sarah (38) and their two children.

The 1911 census shows Ada Hudson (wife of the head of the household) living here with her daughter and two boarders. George Gobert, a German hotel waiter, also lived here In a separate household of one.

The 1921 census shows Archibald Godfrey, a single man of 55 described as a dealer in antiques, living here with his brother William (45), who is described as an upholsterer, and their widowed aunt Julia Dummer (66) who acted as their housekeeper. The Godfrey shop was next door at No. 50.

In 2004 Nos. 50 and 51 were sold by University College to St John’s College along with the Eagle & Child pub immediately to the north. All three premises are currently undergoing major refurbishment (24/02496/LBC).