Nos. 40 & 41: The former Acland House
Nos. 40 and 41 Broad Street were the sixth and seventh houses from the right of the group of thirteen houses dating from the first half of the seventeenth century that were demolished in 1937 to make way for the New Bodleian Library (now the Weston Library).
These houses were in St Mary Magdalen parish, and from 1840 formed one house used as a doctor's surgery, first by Dr Wootten and then by Dr Acland.
No. 40
Dr John Wootten gained his D.Med. at the University of Oxford in 1826 and by January 1830 had started his practice here at No.40. On 1 February 1830 he was appointed Physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary. The 1841 census shows Dr Wootten living here at No. 40 with Frances Wootten and two servants.
No. 41: The Duke of York public house
The Duke of York public house at No. 41 was owned by Christ Church. In 1810 its lease was given to Morrells Brewery for 70 years. Richard Cooper was the publican here from at least 1809 until his death on 22 July 1818, and it was then taken over by his widow Martha Cooper. It was still listed as a pub in Robson’s Directory of 1839, but closed In about 1840.
Dr Wootten at No. 40 took on the lease. It became a private house, and at the time of the 1841 census an independent gentleman called Andrew Walsh there with his servant.
Nos. 40 & 41 combined (c.1841–1936)
Soon after the 1841 census Dr Wootten combined Nos. 40 & 41 to form one dwelling. he died on 26 August 1847.
Dr (later Sir) Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland, who had come to Oxford in 1845 when he was appointed Lee’s Lecturer in Anatomy at Christ Church and had married Sarah Cotton on 14 July 1846 took on the lease of the linked houses at 40 and 41 Broad Street in 1847. .
The 1851 census shows Acland (aged 35) living at 40 & 41 Broad Street with his wife Sarah and their three young children: William (3), Sarah (1), and Henry (five months) Also living with them was an assistant physician T. Victor Carns, plus six servants: a nurse, a cook, a housemaid, a nurserymaid, a wet-nurse (the wife of a mason), and a house servant.
Between 1855 and 1860 Acland initiated the construction of the University Museum of Natural History. He was also Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford from 1857 to 1894.
By 1858, another five sons had been born to the Aclands and they also took over a third adjoining house at 42 Broad Street.. The 1861 census shows Henry Acland living at 40, 41, & 42 Broad Street with his wife Sarah and six of their children and their governess, plus eight servants (including a nurse, cook, housemaid, schoolroom maid, nursemaid, kitchen maid, and a page).
In 1863 he also acquired the lease of No. 43 , which he bought from Christ Church in 1866. He now owned four houses in a row, but let out No. 43.
The 1871 census shows Henry Acland occupying 39, 40, & 41 Broad Street with his wife and brother, plus seven servants.
In 1878 Dr Acland’s wife Sarah died and he endowed a nursing home in Oxford in her memory that later became the Acland Hospital.
On the night of the 1881 census his daughter Sarah Angelina Acland (then aged 31 and described as his housekeeper) was the only member of the family at Nos. 39, 40 & 41. Also in the house were seven servants: a butler, cook, lady’s maid, two housemaids, a kitchenmaid, and a page. (Professor Acland spent census night in Broadclyst, Devon with his brother Sir Thomas Acland, who had double the number of servants.)
At the time of the 1891 census the Acland family had left the servants in charge at 39, 40, & 41 Broad Street.
Dr Acland died in this house on 16 October 1900. The 1901 census shows his daughter Sarah Angelina Acland (51), who by this time was an important amateur photographer) living at Nos. 39, 40, & 41 Broad Street with a companion, a sick nurse, and a cook, housemaid, and parlourmaid. She moved from here to 10 Park Town in 1901.
Right: The grave of Dr Acland and his wife in Holywell Cemetery
From 1902 to 1910 William Bailie Skene, Treasurer of Christ Church, occupied 39/40/41 Broad Street.
In 1911 the three adjoining houses were taken over by the University and named Acland House. It housed the School of Geography for ten years and then various small departments shown in the table below until 1935. Acland House was demolished in 1937 to make way for the New Bodleian Library (now the Weston Library).
J. B. Atlay, in Henry Acland: A Memoir (1903) gives a good description of 40 & 41 Broad Street and the building behind:
The old house in Broad Street was in its way unique. It consisted of three houses which had been at some former time joined together. Two of these faced the street, and had lath-and-plaster fronts; the third, at the back, was of much older date, and its walls were over three feet thick.
It was Dr Acland’s amusement and delight to improve this curious old place until he turned it into a veritable museum, though it always remained what Mrs Acland used to call it, a rabbit-warren. Entering from Broad Street you came into a narrow hall with a Devonshire settle made of walnut and with panelling as a dado on the walls. This panelling continued down the long passage which led to the dining-room and libraries, and the doors of the dining-room were also of walnut and made in the same shops. Out of this narrow hall opened a small room, used as a waiting-room for patients, or for those many people who came on all sorts of errands to the house. The walls of this room were completely covered, chiefly with engravings from portraits….
Out of this little room opened his small consulting-room or study, furnished in the same characteristic manner. Passing down the long passage you came to the first library. As time went on books accumulated everywhere on every sort of subject, down the passage and up the walls, till at least it was all so full that it was a matter of some difficulty to get in or out at all. Beyond this room was another, built originally as an inner sanctum for himself and his wife…
…The stairs to the drawing-room were narrow and steep, but could not be improved owing the presence of a massive chimney-stack…. The drawing-room was a low room with a huge beam running down it…. This room was the centre of the family life….
I have left to the last the dining-room and the garden, into which the former looked; it was in the oldest part of the house, with very thick walls and quaint appearance. On either side of a stone ogival arch cut through the wall was painted in the pre-Raffaelite days, in red letters, the old college “grace” for before and after meat – Benedictus Benedicat: Benedicto Benedicatur….
The garden ran back as far as Trinity Garden Wall, and Dr Acland’s originality and ingenuity were constantly exercised in making it as unlike a square bit of town garden as possible. At the four corners of the little fountain stood four pillars, removed from the Tower of the Five Orders at the Bodleian at the time of its restoration….
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Occupants of 40 and 41 Broad Street listed in directories |
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Date |
40 |
41 |
1820s |
1829: |
Duke of York Richard Cooper (by 1809–1818) |
1830s |
John Wootten,
Physician |
|
1846 |
Bought by John Wootten in 1838/9
Andrew Walsh (independent) |
|
1847–1866 |
Henry Wentworth Acland, Physician |
John Wootton,
Physician (1847) |
George Prior (1861) |
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| 1866–1900 From 1871 No. 39 was included in this property |
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1902–1910 |
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1911–1921 |
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| 1923–1936 Appointments Committee (1923- 1931) |
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These two houses were demolished with nine 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.