No. 17: Oxfam
No. 17 (right) has been an Oxfam shop since 1947, and was the first one that ever opened. It is part of the same building as No. 18 (left), and they are jointly Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1047347). This present building dates from 1868 and is owned by Oxford City Council. It is in St Michael-at-the-Northgate parish.
The former building on the site of No. 17
At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford the former house on the site of No. 17 was occupied by a Mr Hawkins, with its frontage measuring 4yd 0ft 3in.
The 1841 census shows Jane Shayler, a poulterer, living here with her three children, a lodger, and a manservant. She died age 64 on 21 January 1849
The 1851 census shows the hairdresser William Weston living over the former building with his wife and five young children, plus a house servant. The Weston family was still here at the time of the 1861 census.
Jackson's Oxford Journal noted on 17 October 1868 “the rebuilding of
two dwellings with shops, opposite Balliol College, Broad Street”
The builder was Joshua Symm
The present No. 17 (from 1868)
The 1871 census shows the new shop on this site occupied by the jeweller Alfred Holliday with his wife and son, plus a servant. He was still here at the time of the 1881 census, described as a jeweller employing two men and two boys, with his wife and two sons, pluse their 15-year-old nurse and a general servant.
At the time of the 1901 census the jeweller Alfred Holliday (now 62) was still living here with his wife Charlotte and son Herbert.
The photograph below (Historic England HT13867) shows No. 17 again occupied by Alfred Holliday in 1911. No one appears to have been living over the shop at the time of the 1911 census.
Oxfam at 17 Broad Street
Oxfam opened its very first charity shop in this country here in 1948. Until 1959 the charity (which was founded in 1942 at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin) was known as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. In the early years this building also served as Oxfam’s administrative offices, but these moved to Summertown in 1962.
The shop bears an Oxfordshire blue plaque remembering Cecil Jackson-Cole who helped establish the first Oxfam shop and office here.
- BBC Oxfordshire, 5 September 2026: “Inside the shop that inspired the second-hand fashion boom”
Occupants of 17 Broad Street listed in directories (former building to c.1898) |
|
Former building on the site |
|
1840 |
T. W. Martin |
1846 |
James Marsh,
Bootmaker,
and |
1852–1866 |
William Weston, Hairdresser & perfumer |
Present building |
|
1869–1916 |
Holliday, Jewellers/Opticians 1869–1884: Alfred Holliday, watchmaker & jeweller |
1919–1945 |
Marshall & Foat, Tailors (to 1926) William Marshall, Ladies’ Tailor (1927–1945) |
Since 1947 |
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief
(Oxfam) |