Oxford History: The High

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No. 90, which is attached on its east side to University College, was built in c.1612 by the apothecary John Williams. It is now owned by University College, and there is student accommodation upstairs.

It was refronted in 1812, when an extra storey was added. It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry No. 1369387). It marks the start of St Mary-the-Virgin parish, and has always been in that parish.

It was already a draper's shop by 1738. In 1754 Messrs Ives and Chettoe, mercers & drapers, went into partnership here. William Ives died in 1764 and Thomas Chettoe continued on his own for four years. Then on 19 November 1768 he advertised all his stock in trade for sale, and the shop at 90 High Street was advertised as follows:

TO BE LETT, an old accustomed Mercer's Shop in Oxford, well situated and very commodious for the Business; in which it has been occupied for upwards of Thirty Years. Enquire of Mr. Ralph Kirby, Grocer, or Mr. Thomas Chettoe, Mercer, in Oxford, who will shew the Premises.

The stock in trade was purchases by James Morten and Joseph Fortnom, who had a mercer's shop near Carfax. Then in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 15 April 1769 Joseph Fortnom advertised that he was “removed to a more commodious shop, late Mr. Chettoe’, Mercer, opposite All Souls College [90 High Street]; where he has laid in a large and fresh Assortment of all Kinds of Mercery, Woollen and Linnen Drapery; likewise a large Stock of Hosiery, and London Beaver hats”. He stated that he also sold “Printed Linnens and Cottons; figured, plain, and clear Lawns; Quiltings; flowered Modes and Sattins, with various other Articles in the Haberdashery”. On 3 November 1770 it was reported that the Oxford hatter Lee Elkington was charged with steadling 25 yards of fine Irish linen from Fortnom's shop and was committed to the Bocardo: it was later found that he had previously stolen hats, gold lace, and broad-cloth from the same shop. In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 90 was duly recorded as being in the occupation of a Mr Fortnom, and its frontage measured 12 yards 0 feet 3 inches.

Fortnom declined business early in 1775 and John Parsons took it over, inserting the following announcement in Jackson's Oxford Journal:

OXFORD, January 7th, 1775
JOHN PARSONS, having taken to the Shop and Trade of Mr. Fortnom, Mercer, Hatter, Hosier, &c. (who has declined Business in his Favour) begs Leave to solicit a Continuance of the Commands of the Nobility, Gentry, and other Friends of Mr. Fortnom, as well as the future Favours of the Public in general, and his own Friends in particular, whom he begs Leave to inform, that the purposes to carry on the Trade in all the different Branches, and to make it his constant Study to keep Goods of the very best Manufactures, and render them on the lowest Terms, so as to merit their Encouragement, which will be most gratefully acknowledged.
     N.B. As he intends to lay in a large and fresh Assortment of Goods of all Sorts, the present Stock will be sold off at prime Cost, consisting of a Variety of Superfine, Second, and other Broad Cloths, yard-wide Forest Cloths, Hunters, Beavers, &c. &c. with many other Articles in the Linnen and Woollen Way.
     N.B. Funerals furnished.

As an undergraduate, Parson Woodforde had visited Fortnum’s hatter’s shop many times, and when he came back to Oxford when he was in his thirties, he continued to visit Parsons, writing on 8 July 1775: “Had a New Hat of one Parsons who succeeded Fortnom in his Business—I owe him for it—1:1:0.

In 1781 John Parsons went tnto partnership with William Fletcher of 93 High Street and for a very short while Parsons & Fletcher operated from both shops. Then Philip Ward briefly had his upholstery business here, but this closed in 1782 and died in early 1783.

James Adams, “upholder, appraiser, and auctioneer” (and the fourth mercer at this shop to serve as Mayor of Oxford) took the shop over in 1783. He died at the age of 70 in September 1829, and his son Charles James Adams took over as a cabinet maker and upholsterer. He also let lodgings here for the accommodation of the Judges and their suite during each Assizes. He went bankrupt, and his house had to be sold. The advertisement notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 10 August 1839 gave the following description:

The truly-valuable HOUSE and PREMISES for many years in the possession and occupation of Mr. Adams and his late father, and always used as the Lodgings of the Judges at the Oxford Assizes; comprising a superior FRONT SHOP, with a private entrance on each side; a counting house; six excellent sitting rooms, four of which are fronting the street, and have handsome antique chimney pieces and ceilings, each room 21 feet by 16 feet, and the other two look into the garden, and are of larger dimensions; a VERY SPLENDID ROOM, 50 feet by 30 feet, and 14 feet high, used as a Reading Room by the Members of the University Union Society; butler’s pantry, china closet, store room, sixteen bed rooms, most of them large and airy, three stair cases, two water closets, and numerous other convenient closets; two capital kitchens, brew-house, laundry and mangle room, meat larders, three cellars, and a large arched vault; court yard, with coal house, knife house, and shoe house. A pleasure garden at the back of the house, planted with choice standard roses and evergreen shrubs; a green-house and pits, with hot water apparatus, &c. &c.

These Premises are situate in the CENTRE of the HIGH-STREET, and contain a frontage of 36 feet near the street; and from their extent and importance, both as to the capabilities for carrying on any business requiring room and PUBLIC SHOW, and for LODGINGS, by which a very large income is now made, are considered to have no equal in the City of Oxford.

The Property is held by Lease under Christ Church, for 40 years, from Michaelmas (Old Style) 1826, at a trifling Quit Rent.

Also the Workshops, Shed, Stable and other Offices, at the bottom of the garden, occupied by Mr. Adams; with a communication from the street leading out of Grove Street [Kybald Lane].

Charles James Adams became Master of the Workhouse after giving up his business, and died at the age of 80 on 5 July 1866.

The premises were taken over in c.1840 by Joseph Vincent (whose father of the same name had iin about 1820 established a bookshop in St Mary’s Passage which soon expanded to become an important publishing house, printing many university brochures as well as famous lampoons). When John Ruskin was an undergraduate at Christ Church (1836–40), his mother took on the lease of the upstairs part of 90 High Street so that she could keep a watchful eye on him, and his father joined her every weekend. At the time of the 1841 census the bookseller Joseph Vincent lived here at No. 90 with his wife Louisa and their children Louisa (15) and Joseph Henry  (2), plus four servants. The 1851 census shows Vincent still living at No. 90 with his surgeon son Cyril John Vincent (21) and a general servant. In 1852 he bought the old established Oxford University and City Herald, and it remained in the hands of his family and was published here at No. 90 until 1892. He was sto;; here at the time of the 1861 and 1871 censuses, and his daughter-in-law Emily Anne Vincent and her children lived with him: in 1861 she was still married to his son Cyril John Vincent, but he died in Summertown at the age of 34 in January 1864 and so in 1871 she was a widow. In May 1872 Joseph Vincent launched a new independent weekly newspaper called The Oxford Guardian.

Vincent’s Club was founded in this building in 1863. It moved to 6/7 High Street in 1894 (and eventually to its present address in King Edward Street in 1931).

Joseph Vincent died at the age of 80 in 1874, and the 1881 census shows his son, the newspaper proprietor William Allder Vincent (62), living over his shop here with his wife Charlotte Raikes Vicent, their daughter Selina, undergraduate son Edward, and granddaughter Emily King, plus a printer’s apprentice and a housemaid. At the time of the 1891 census, when he was a widower of 72 described as a printer & publisher, he was still living here with his son Frederick (28), who was a newspaper reporter, and his niece Harriett Boswell, plus their housemaid.

From 1886 to 1888 Mansfield College, a theological hall that had moved down from Birmingham, operated temporarily from two rooms at 90 High Street while waiting for their new premises in Mansfield Road to be built. Similarly Manchester New College (now Harris Manchester College) had temporary premises here until it moved to its present site on the newly built Mansfield Road in 1893.

In 1892 Vincent's firm was incorporated with Baxter’s Press at 126 High Street, where it survived until 1968.

By 1900 Spencer's cycle shop was at No. 90 with a lodging house upstairs, and the 1901 census shows the lodging-house keeper Frederick Knott living there with his wife Agnes and their son, plus a manageress and two servants.

In 1905 University College bought this building at 90 High Street from Christ Church for £8,000.

The photograph below (Historic England CC72/01866) shows the interior of a second-floor room at 90 High Street in 1907:

From 1925 to 1966 this shop was Oxford Valet Services.

Above: Top hat sent by Oxford Valet Services to the Revd Julian Llewellyn Dove (1856–1948) to his address at 16 Stephen Road, Headington, where he lived from at least 1935 to 1947. Reproduced by permission of the owner, Katy Hagan

Photograph of Oxford Valet Services at 90 High Street in 1943: Historic England BB43/00304

In February 2026 a planning application was submitted by University College for works to the rear of 90 High Street (26/00429/LBC), and the 61pp Heritage assessment under the Documents tab gives an illustrated full history and description of the building.