Broad Street Home

Oxford History home

Tour
Broad Street

Plan of street: visit individual buildings

General History

Broad Street News

Contact/Search

No. 22 possibly dates from the eighteenth century, but was refronted in the 1960s. It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1047349).

It is owned by Oxford City Council and is in St Michael-at-the-Northgate parish.

Photograph of this shop in context in 1949

Saunders’ Passage ran down the side of this shop, leading to another two businesses with living quarters upstairs based in the backyard.

At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford the house and passage were occupied by a Mrs Shepherd, and its frontage measured 3yd 1ft 9in.

The 1841 census shows Charles Lobb, a staymaker, and his wife Mary living at 22 Broad Street: both are loosely described as being aged 45. By 1851 he had moved his business across the road to 49 Broad Street.

At the time of the 1851 census the tobacconist Hershall Woolf (who was born in Poland) was living here with his wife. A bathchair-man and his wife, and a tailor and his laundress wife and baby, lived in Saunders Passage.

On 5 May 1855 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised the forthcoming auction of a cigar & fancy pipe dealers stock and some of the household furniture of Hershall Woolf, who was leaving the premises.

At the time of the 1871 census the head of the household W. C. Darbey was away but his wife, a lace milliner, was here with their boarder. (The cab proprietor John Lowe and the bookbinder John Barker were behind in Saunders Passage).

On 26 May 1877 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised a forthcoming auction of a 40-year lease of both Nos. 21 and 22 Broad Street. This shop at No. 21, and the cottages behind, were described as follows:

Lot 6 — All those valuable PREMISES, known as No. 22 Broad-street, containing small front shop, with side entrance on ground floor, large sitting room and two bed rooms on the first and second floors, with cellar and w.c. in the basement, as now in the occupation of Mr. Darbey, at the moderate rental of £28 per annum.
   [Lease of No. 22] for 40 years from Michaelmas, 1875, subject to a Ground Rent of 10s., one pullet or 1s.  in money, and an acquittance of 8d. per annum.

The house was unoccupied at the time of the 1881 census, but it appears that the occupant, Darbey, bought the lease, as on 31 December 1881 a report of a fire at these premises stated that they were then owned as well as occupied by him.

By 1884 No. 22 was occupied by the watchmaker & jeweller Emile Theodore Merckel. He died here at the age of 33 on 26 December 1885.

No. 22 was a bookshop from 1889, jointly with No. 21 to the right, and a circulating library operated from both shops. At the time of the 1891 census the bookseller's assistant Harry Harvey (33) was living upstairs at Nos. 21 & 22 with his wife Matilda.

On 5 June 1893 the Property & Estates Committee agreed that a licence be granted to Mr. Walter Acock and the Misses Clara Frances and Alice Acock

to assign absolutely the leasehold house and premises No. 22, Broad-street, and being No. 73 in the schedule to the city property, held under a lease for a term of 40 years, from the 29th September 1879, to ... Sarah Jane Harris [of 13, Iffley-road, widow]

with a similar licence relating to 21 Broad Street.

Then 29 October 1894 the Property & Estates Committee agreed that a licence be granted to Mrs Sarah Jane Harris of 153 Iffley Road

to assign absolutely to William Parker, 53, Woodstock-road, subject to the mortgage to Miss Mary Ann Day. the leasehold house and premises No. 21 Broad-street, held under lease for a term of 40 years from the 25th day of March, 1889; also a license to the said Sarah Jane Harris to assign absolutely to the said William Parker, subject to the mortgage to Miss Mary Ann Day, the leasehold house and premises, No. 22 Broad-street, held under lease for a term of 40 years from the 29th day of September 1879; also licences to the said William Parker to demise the said premises, Nos. 21 and 22 as from the 1st day of September, 1894, to Harry Harvey, of 21 and 22, Broad-street, bookseller and stationer, for the residue of the said terms except the last days thereof.

Frank Harvey was the bookseller here 1895 to 1909. He also had the premises next door, and the 1901 census shows him at the age of 43 living over Nos. 21 & 22 with his wife and mother-in-law.

At the time of the 1911 census the living quarters over 21 & 22 Broad Street were occupied by Harry Harold, a tailor aged 30, who lived alone in the seven rooms. Only one house was now occupied in Saunders Yard behind, No. 3, where the cab driver Charles Busy lived with his family

For a few years it was a tailor's shop, and then in 1915 it reverted to being a bookshop run by Hubert Giles.

Frank A. Wood was the bookseller here from c.1929–1949, and until 1937 the shop remained joined to No. 23 on the left. The following photographs of his shop were taken in 1931:

• F. A. Wood's pair of shops at 23 Broad Street (left) and 22 (right)
• Interior of F. A. Wood's bookshop

The Heritage, Design, & Access Statement included in the documents of planning application 24/01638/LBC gives a good history of 21 & 22 Broad Street.