No. 37: Former shop/house
No. 37 Broad Street was the third house from the right of the thirteen houses dating from the first half of the seventeenth century that were demolished to make way for the New Bodleian Library (now the Weston Library) in 1937. The photograph on the right shows 37 Broad Street taken from inside the entrance to the Clarendon Building,
The house was in St Mary Magdalen parish.
The Elephant Inn on the site of the Clarendon Building is understood to have changed its name to the Royal Oak in 1662, and one of the houses in this group took up the old name of the Elephant and operated as a pub until 1820. Miriam Freeborn understood that it was probably here at No. 37, but there is a chance it was the earlier name of the Duke of York, which was definitely at No. 41.
The 1841 census shows Thomas Cripps living at No. 39 with Sarah, Robert, and Elizabeth Cripps and three servants. In mid-1845 he gave up his confectionery business here and moved to his farm at Summertown.
In 1845 No. 37 Broad Street was taken over by the bootmaker John Simms. He died in 1848, and his widow Clara took over the business with the aid of her brother-in-law James Simms. No. 37 was a large house, and the 1851 census shows that the shoemaking business going on at No. 37 (wrongly numbered 38 in the census) was more like a factory than a cottage industry. Clara (41) was the employer of 18 men, including her two sons George (21) and James (19), who lived with her over the shop with their two little sisters and 4-year-old brother, plus a servant and a student lodger.
On 6 June 1857 her son George Simms advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal that having made practical observations on the foot for several years and successfully removed and cured corns, bunions, and defective toe nails, he was now offering his service to the nobility, gentry, and public generally for a fee of five shillings, and henceforth the firm was described as bootmakers & chiropodists.
Clara Simms is shown described as the boot maker here in the 1861 census. She lived here with her unmarried son James Robert Simms (28), who was a boot closer, her younger children Emily Mary Simms (17) and John Edward Simms (14), her grandson James Arthur Winney (4), and a 16-year-old general servant.
The 1871 census again shows Clara Simms (61), described as a boot maker employing 16 men, living here with her son James Robert Simms (39), who was a boot closer, plus her sister-in-law Elizabeth Simms and a general servant.
Clara died at the age of 68 on 11 April 1877, and the 1881 census shows her son George Simms, a widower of 51 described as a chiropodist as well as a boot maker, living on the premises with his son George Simms junior (a bootmaker of 21) and Amelia his daughter, plus a general servant.
George Simms, bootmaker & chiropodist (61) was still living here at the time of the 1891 census, with his daughter Kate (20) acting as a housekeeper, plus their general servant.
In Jackson's Oxford Journal of 27 August 1892 George Simms stated that he was late of 37 Broad Street and was now at 6 & 7 Ship Street. His medical repertoire had increased alarmingly: he could now treat cancer, lupus, fistulas, and carbuncles, and quoted the testimony of a father from Mill Street in Osney whose daughter had been cured of subperiosteal sarcoma of the humerus after being treated with a light stimulating lotion. He was living at 36 High Street by 1901 and gave his occupation as “cancer specialist”.
The 1901 census shows Frederick Pickering (29) running a university lodging house at No. 37. He was living here with his wife Emma and their baby son, and his two sisters-in-law, and his niece, plus a 15-year-old general servant.
The surgeon Herbert Counsell lived here at his surgery from 1903 to 1934, and in his book 37 The Broad (London, Robert Hale Ltd, 1943) he describes life at “Thirty-seven” during this period. The 1911 census shows him here in this twelve-roomed house with his son Christopher (21), who was a law undergraduate, his daughter Violet (19), plus a boarder, a nurse, and a domestic servant. In 1921 he was here with his wife Helen and two daughters, plus a boarder and two servants.
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Occupants of 37 Broad Street listed in directories Sometimes numbered 38, e.g. in 1851 census |
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1839–1845 |
Thomas Cripps, Pastry cook |
1846–1890 |
Simms family, Bootmakers 1846: John Simms, Bootmaker |
1893–1899 |
W. Lewis Morgan, MA Oxon, MRCS |
1901–1902 |
Frederick Owen Pickering, Lodging House |
1903–1934 |
Herbert E. Counsell, FRCS, Surgeon (Surgery) |
1935–1936 |
Rose Paget, Gowns |
Demolished with twelve
neighbouring houses in 1937 |
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See the bound typescript in the Bodleian Library entitled “The
Demolished Houses
of Broad Street and the Freeborn Family”
(1943), attributed to Emily Sarah Freeborn,
and the webpage by Alan Simpson which reproduces some of the material in it.