Oxford History: The High

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No. 48 occupies the whole of this large double-fronted house, which was in St Peter-in-the East parish until that parish was united with St Cross parish in 1957. It has an eighteenth-century front but is largely nineteenth-century, and is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1115601). The upper floors were converted for the use of St Edmund Hall in 1930.

There was a pub on this site known as the Queen’s Head by 1616; in 1618 it was renamed the King’s Arms, but went back to its original name when Queen Anne came to the throne in 1702. It ceased to be a pub by the end of the eighteenth century.

At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford this house was occupied by the apothecary Joseph Meysey, and had a wide frontage of 10 yds 1 ft 3 in. After Meysey's death in 1785 his wife continued to run his business helped by his former assistant Henry Passand. The latter took over the shop in 1789.

No. 48 appears to have been two separate dwellings when it was advertised for auction in Jackson's Oxford Journal for 25 April 1795 as two equal lots:

All those Two Leasehold DWELLING-HOUSES, situated in the High Street, nearly opposite the Angel Inn, in Oxford. Each House will comprise a Shop, a Parlour, a Kitchen, three Bed-Chambers, two Garrets, a Court Yard, Wash-House, Garden, &c. &c.

The Premisses have been lately repaired, and now lett to Messrs Passand and Palmer; the Lease of the one expires at Lady-Day next, and the other is a Tenant at Will.

Henry Passand took on his own junior partner William Rusher in about 1815, when they operated as apothecaries and man-midwives. This partnership was dissolved on 22 May 1821 and William Rusher took over the business and lived and worked here as a surgeon and apothecary. The 1841 census shows Rusher living here with his wife Elizabeth and their son William, plus an apprentice and four servants. In 1851 he and his wife were here with their son Richard (also a surgeon) and their daughter, son, and granddaughter, plus four house servants, and groom. In the 1861 census at the age of 69 he was described as a surgeon “in practice prior to 1815” and was here with his wife, his unmarried daughter Emily (39), and his granddaughter Mary Orchard, plus a housekeeper, groom, and three other servants. He died here at the age of 70 on 24 March 1862.

On 15 February 1865 this leasehold house, which had four reception rooms and ten bedrooms, as well as a stable and yard at the back, was sold at auction to Benjamin Brooks for £970, and he had a “fine front” built on this shop. On 24 February 1866 Brooks advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he had opened a branch here of B. Brooks & Sons, Carvers, Gilders, Publishers, & Printsellers of London. Then on 25 May 1867 he announced that he was going to retire from his other branches in London, Doncaster, and Hull and confine himself entirely to this Oxford branch. His son Ernest Charles Brooks died here at the age of one year and ten months on 13 April 1870. At the time of the 1871 census he was living upstairs with his wife Eliza and their children Maria (20), Alice (18), Charlotte (17), Thomas (13), Benjamin (9), and Bertha (7), plus a general servant.

The 1881 census shows the cabinet maker Theophilus Carter (56), who employed five men and whose business spread across 48 & 49 High Street, living on the premises of No. his wife Mary daughter, granddaughter, plus two servants. Some believe that, at Charles Dodgson’s instigation, Tenniel took Carter as his model for the drawings of the Mad Hatter.

By the time of the 1891 census Albert Sidney Chavasse, a Fellow of University College and a barrister, was living here with his wife Florence and their four children, plus four servants.

The 1901 census shows the tobacconist George Cooke (40) living at No. 48 with his wife Mary and their two servants (q cook and a housemaid).

William Morris's cycle repair shop

From 1900 to 1908 William Morris (later Lord Nuffield) ran his cycle repair business from this shop

A plaque engraved in the glass of the door reads:   WILLIAM RICHARD MORRIS later LORD NUFFIELD 1877–1963 first used this shop in his business as a cycle maker and repairer from which developed the motor car enterprise which  was to benefit millions by the philanthropic  benevolence of its founder

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The 1911 census shows Joseph Shillingford (58), a college servant, living in the fifteen rooms over this shop with his wife Annie, who kept a university lodging house here, and their two daughters, plus one boarder and a servant.

The 1921 census shows the widow Annie Butler (64), who was the caretaker of the antique dealer Archibald Graham here, living in two rooms on the premises. Another three rooms were occupied by Mrs Emma Pickering (50) and her son.

The drawing by Robert Kennard below shows 48 High Street during World War II, and is reproduced by permission of Arthur Skone. Sidney Skone (1889–1964) expanded his father’s nineteenth-century boot and shoe manufacturing business, Poulsen Skone of 12 Duke Street, London, and opened up various branches in other parts of the country, including this one in Oxford.

The Skone shop at 48 High Street can also be seen in the middle of this 1949 photograph