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Nos. 47–51 were rebuilt in 1879/1880 and the block was named Bocardo Chambers.

The former five shops on this site from 1772 to 1878

The five shops on this site have always been in the parish of St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church, and were occupied as follows in 1772, when a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771:

• 47: Mr Bowers (frontage 4 yard 1 foot 11 inches)
• 48: Mr Speakman (frontage 3 yards 0 ft. 10 in.)
• 49: Mr Rought (frontage 4 yards 2 ft. 0 in.
• 50: Mr Boswell (frontage 5 yards 2 ft. 6 in.)
• 51: Mr Lawrance (frontage 5 yards 2 ft. 2 in.)

Drawing of the former shops at 48, 49, 50, and 51 Cornmarket Street
(running right to left) made by J. C. Buckler in 1822

No. 47 on the right was left by George Potter to the City of Oxford to be used for making loans to freemen. For leases granted by the City between 1693 and 1830, see H. E. Salter, Oxford City Properties, pp. 251–2. The chemist Edward Kent had his shop here by 1846, and on 24 January that year he advertised: “Cameras and the necessary preparations for taking Portraits, Landscapes, &c. by the New Photographic and Daguerreotype Processes”.

No. 48 was in the occupation of the dyer John Speakman when it was advertised to let on 15 February 1772.

Henry Boswell the elder opened his first trunk & portmanteau shop in the earlier shop at No. 50 in 1738. At the time of the 1841 census his son Francis Boswell (80) was living here with his wife Susanna (66) and their daughter Hannah (35) and their son Henry Boswell the younger (23), and took over the business when his father died the following year.

On 25 November 1854 a forthcoming auction of Nos. 48, 49, & 50 Cornmarket was advertised for sale following the death of Francis Boswell the elder:

The DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISES, known as No. 48 Corn Market-street, Oxford, comprising a shop, with plate glass front, two parlours and four bed rooms, with back entrance and other conveniences, in the occupation of Mr. Barratt, musicseller, at a rental of 40l. per Annum.

Also the DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISES, known as No., 49, Corn Market-street, comprising a large front shop, two parlours, two bed rooms and two attics, with back entrance and other conveniences, in the occupation of Mr. Miller, picture dealer, at a rental of 40l. per annum.

And the DWELLING HOUSE and PREMISES, known as 5, No. [sic] Corn Market-street, comprising a large front shop, spacious and lofty sitting room, four bed rooms, two attics, china closet, kitchen, and other domestic offices. Also a YARD at the back and range of WORKSHOPS, STOREROOMS, and SHEDS, with entrance thereto from the street, in the occupation of Mr. Boswell, trunk-maker, at a rental of 60l. per annum.

This property possesses a frontage to the most eligible part of the street of 40 feet 6 inches, and extends a depth of 100 feet. It is held by lease under the Feoffees of the parish of St. Michael, Oxford, for a term of 40 years from the 10th of October, 1838, subject to a reserved rent of 5l. per annum, payable half-yearly.

By 1861 Francis Boswell the younger (now 58) had taken over the shop at No. 50 and employed four men and five boys. The following year his eldest son Henry Boswell the younger took it over. Robert Hills moved the hairdressing side of his business here in 1860 so that he could concentrate on photography with his new firm Hills & Saunders, but in March 1862 relinquished hairdressing and this shop. Henry Boswell next door took over No. 49 in 1868. In Jackson's Oxford Journal of 13 June 1868 Boswell advertised trunks, hat cases, bags and purses at No. 50 and hats, hosiery, gloves, and shirts at No. 49.

An auction by the direction of the Trustees of the Church Lands in St. Michael's Parish of the land on which Nos. 48 & 49 had stood was advertised thus in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 1 June 1878:

ALL THAT MOST VALUABLE BUILDING LAND,
Comprising the SITE of the Properties now known as Nos. 48 & 49 CORN MARKET STREET, OXFORD,
Now in the occupation of Messrs Bowell & Neill

The above important Site, situate in the best part of the best business street in Oxford, has a valuable frontage of about 38 feet to the Corn Market, a depth of 87 feet on the south side, of 56 feet on the north side, is 27 feet wide a the back, and having a total area of about 3000 feet, is eminently adapted for the erection of first-class Business Premises. It will be Let on a Building Lease for 99 years from 10th October next, when possession will be given.

On 29 June 1878 it was reported that No. 50 in addition to the above two houses had been sold for development:

VALUE OF OXFORD PROPERTY.—The plot of land now occupied by the premises, Nos. 48, 49, and 50, Corn Market Street, having a total area of about 3000 feet, with a frontage of about 41 feet, was let by public auction, on Thursday last, at the Roebuck Hotel, on a 99 years' building lease. Mr. Fred. R. Pike, the auctioneer, having in his usual able manner pointed out the peculiar advantages of the site, for the erection of extensive and first-class business premises, the biddings started at 100l., rapidly rose to 160l., and, after a somewhat exciting competition, the lot was finally knocked down at a ground rent of 206l. per annum, making the value of the freehold 5150l. The old buildings will shortly be pulled down, and we understand Mr. Boswell, the lessee, intends erecting on the site two first-class shops, offices, and dwelling-houses of somewhat similar design to Mr. F. R. Pike's handsome premises, Nos. 14 and 15, Magdalen Street. It is also probable that the adjoining houses, Nos. 47 and 51, will be pulled down at the same time, so that altogether a very considerable improvement may be expected in that part of Corn Market Street.

The house each end was indeed pulled down as well, and the five old shops had evidently been demolished by 31 May 1879 when Jackson's Oxford Journal published a preliminary notice of sale for "The Whole of the BUILDING MATERIALS of FIVE HOUSES in Corn Market-Street, being Numbers 47 to 51, both inclusive”: the sale was expected to take place on or about 24 June, which indicates the date of demolition.

• Julie Kennedy, The Changing Faces of Oxford City Centre, Book 1, p. 43 shows the former shops at Nos. 49, 50, and 51 in about 1870
• Michael L. Turner and David Vaisey, Oxford Shops and Shopping, p. 52, illustration 117
  shows Boswell’s earlier shop at Nos. 49–50 Cornmarket

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The present group of shops on this site (built 1879/80)

In 1879/80 Henry Boswell the younger had this group of four shops rebuilt, and reopened as before in Nos. 49 & 50. On 11 October 1879 Jackson's Oxford Journal reported on the replacement of the shops on this site:

The whole range of houses from the late Alderman Richard Spiers's old premises [No. 44, but this is wrong: see next article] to the Clarendon Hotel, including the buildings lately occupied by Mr. Boswell [49 & 50] and Mr. Neill [48], have been pulled down, to give place to new and larger premises just commenced for Messrs. Gammon, Wicks, and Co., Mr. Boswell, and the Trustees of the City Charities. Mr. Codd is the architect of the whole block, and Mr. Thomas Selby the builder, the amount of the contracts being, we believe, over 10,000l.

The demolished group of houses did not actually extend as far north as No. 44, and this report on 23 October 1880 gives clear evidence that the shops actually being replaced were Nos. 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51, and helpfully lists the first occupiers of the new building.

No. 47, Corn Market-street, belonging to the City Charity Trustees, Nos. 48, 49, and 50, belonging to Mr. H. Boswell, and No. 51, the property of Messrs. Gammon and Wicks, have been pulled down and rebuilt in one block, being from the designs of Mr. F. Codd, architect and City Surveyor. The materials are white Garsington brick, stone, and oak, and the style domestic Gothic. The shop fronts are made as bay windows with curved sides, in order to project the goods as much as possible before the eyes of people passing in the street. There is an oriel window with turret at the south-east angle of the building, and another small turretted window at the north-east angle.
No. 47, occupied by Mr. Cracknell as a linen draper's shop, covers the whole of the site, with light warehouse under and show room and nine-roomed dwelling house above.
No. 48, occupied by Messrs. Lillingstone, boot and shoe makers, is separated from No. 50, which is occupied by Mr. Boswell, portmanteau maker, by a central archway and corridor leading to No. 49. Nos. 48 and 50 each consist of large shops on the ground floor, with workshops in the basement, and large houses suitable for University lodgings above, approached by separate entrances in the central corridor.
No. 49 consists entirely of offices occupied by Mr. G. D. Dudley, solicitor, Mr. Codd, architect, and the Young Men's Church of England Association.
No. 51, being at the corner of 52 Frewin-court, is somewhat differently arranged, owing to its possessing side windows, advantages which were quickly seen by Messrs. Woodward and Richmond, who have established a woollen drapery business. The upper part of the house is approached by a separate door in the passage, and is occupied by Mrs. Thatcher, late of St. John-street.
All the houses are fitted with Jennings' latest and most approved sanitary appliances, Hayward's prismatic lights, speaking tubes, Waygood's lifts, &c. Mr. Thos. Selby, Worcester-place, is the builder of the whole, and the work has been most satisfactorily performed.

Boswell was the only person who occupied both the old and the new buildings on this site. C. Cracknell, for instance, announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 19 June 1880 that he had just opened at No. 47, having purchased the drapery, millinery, and mantle business from the executors of Walter Cooper.

The photograph below (Historic England HT13856) dating from 1910 shows an entrance between No. 50 to the left and No. 48 to the right inscribed Bocardo Chambers, leading to the offices above in the flat frontage in the centre of this block, taking up the ground floor of No. 49:

In 1890 Henry Boswell sold his shop at No. 50 to Arthur Pearson, who also ran an ironmonger's shop at 31  Cornmarket Street from 1882 to 1912. In 1929 Boswell's moved to new purpose-built premises at 1–3 Broad Street. (Pearson

Henry Moses Gammon of the wine & spirit merchants Guy & Gammon were at Frewin Court at the left-hand side of this group of buildings until his death at the age of 45 in 1871. It was announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 30 September 1871 that the firm would henceforth be conducted by James Wicks, who had been assistant manager for six years, and that it would henceforth be called Guy, Gammon & Co.

The tailor Henry William Wilton Woodward moved into No. 51 as soon as it was rebuilt. In the early 1920s he moved to 110 High Street, prior to amalgamating with Arthur Shepherd in 1927.

• Artist's impression by the architect Frederick Codd in 1870 of his proposed new building at Nos. 47–51 Cornmarket Street.
• Nos. 48–51 in 1910 by Henry Taunt and another view

• Michael L. Turner and David Vaisey, Oxford Shops and Shopping, p. 44, illustration 59 shows Woodward’s shop at the present No. 51 in c.1900
• Ibid., p. 53, illustration 118 shows Boswell’s shop at the present Nos. 49–50

The photograph below taken by Henry Taunt in 1911 (Historic England CC72/02301) focuses on Woodward's tailor's shop at No. 51 and Henry Boswell's shop at 50 & 49, with the sign for Long's Registry visible upstairs at No. 48. It shows that the large arched entrance to Bocardo Chambers upstairs now comprised much of the ground floor of No. 49.

The postcard extract below shows the present Nos. 47–51 in c.1900. The name WOODWARD and the number 51 can be seen above the door on the left, and three doors to the right the name LONG’S REGISTRY shows up clearly on the upstairs window of No. 48:

The five shops at 47–51 Cornmarket in c.2010: