Grand Tour

   (History of each of
   the hundred houses
   of Holywell Street)

Holywell Bowling Green

Holywell Cemetery

Holywell Church 

Holywell Cock Pit

Holywell Cottage

Holywell Gallows

Holywell Manor

Holywell Mill

Holywell School

The Holy Well

Window tax

Listed buildings

House numbering

1830 directory

1839–1847 directories

1667 poll tax

Pubs

Timeline

6 Holywell Street is the very wide house on the right, and 7 Holywell Street (whose number is not generally used) is the taller, narrower house on the left. This pair of houses has formed one large building since the eighteenth century, and hence No. 7 has no front door.

The whole front appears to be an eighteenth-century remodelling of a seventeenth-century house. It was formerly owned by New College, and is now owned by Merton College.

Nos. 6 & 7 are jointly Grade II listed (1047265), with the following description:

Nos 6 & 7 (Formerly listed as No 6) SP 5106 NE 6/219 II GV 2.
House. RCHM 215. Buildings in 2 sections. Both are stuccoed and have three-light Cl8 sash windows. The whole front appears to be a C18 re-modelling of a C17 house but the West range may have been new built at the later date.
No 6: The East range is 2-storeyed with a moulded wood band at the ground floor which is of rubble, the upper part being (?) timber-framed. There is a moulded wood eaves cornice and a small parapet concealing three dormers behind in a Welsh slate roof, which in turn appears to be in front of, or part of, another earlier building. The plain wood doorframe has a bracketed hood. In the centre of the lst floor the window projects slightly.
No 7: The West range is a taller late C18 building with the three-light sash windows on the ground floor in segmental recessed arches with bracketed cills and keystones. There is a band at the first floor and the second floor windows have keystoned, rusticated and stepped architraves. Above is a bold moulded parapet.
The back of this range is of modern brick.
    Interior. RCHM p. 181b. Includes early C18 staircase and panelling.

The rubble wall at the rear of No. 7 is listed separately (1299036) and is described simply as: “Wall at rear of No 7 SP 5106 NE 6/219A II GV 2. C17/18 curved rubble wall.”

The Cardinal's Hat Inn was at Nos. 6 & 7 in the eighteenth century. The 1772 Survey of Oxford shows Mrs L. Jennens occupying these premises, whose frontage measured a massive 30 yards and 10 Inches (compare No. 5 to the right whose frontage was only 5 yards). On 11 November 1758 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised the sale of two tenements in Holywell “in the several Occupations of Mrs. Calcott and Mrs. Jennens”.

The extract below from the 1876 Street Plan shows that Nos. 6 & 7 were now a large private house: it was still known as the Cardinal’s Hat, and that name survived into the twentieth century. The large L-shaped back garden of this house extended eastwards behind the smaller gardens of Nos. 2–5 Holywell Street.

The Revd Charles Pourtales Golightly lived alone in this large house for at least forty years in the nineteenth century, and was listed here in the censuses from 1841 to 1881. He appears to have let out the stables to the west for a period, as Charles Symonds (whose main stables were at 30 Holywell Street) is listed in Hunt's Directory for 1846 as having a livery stable between Nos. 7 & 8.

Golightly appears to have moved out in 1883, as Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 21 July that year advertised that it was to be let, furnished, and then on 10 November 1883 advertised the sale of the lease. The house was described as follows:

No. 6 HOLYWELL STREET, OXFORD.
THE LEASE of this commodious and desirable PRIVATE RESIDENCE to be sold.
THE HOUSE contains: —
IN THE BASEMENT — Extensive cellarage.
ON THE GROUND FLOOR. — Square pannelled entrance hall, study, dining room, drawing room, butler’s pantry, w.c., servants’ hall, kitchen, and offices.
ON THE FIRST FLOOR — Library with folding doors, three bed rooms, two dressing rooms, and w.c.
ON THE SECOND FLOOR — Four convenient attics.
There is a large and productive walled Garden; also a small Garden, a Yard with carriage entrance from the street, and Buildings that have been and are easily re-convertable into a coach house and three-stalled stable.
(The Greenhouses, Forcing Pits, &c., are Tenant’s Fixtures, and should be taken to as such.)
The Property is held under Merton College, Oxford, for a term expiring in April, 1901. Ground Rent, £6 4s. Land Tax, £1 2s 6d.
There are at present held and occupied with the above Premises two large Vegetable Gardens, situated immediately at the back of and communicating with the same, which are held by a lease expiring in March, 1887, at a yearly rent of £15.
The Purchaser of the Premises shall have the option of taking these Gardens under the present Agreement.
Further particulars concerning price of Lease, &c., on application.
To a suitable Tenant the House might be Let at a yearly rental under an ordinary Agreement for the term of 17 years.

Then on 16 February 1884 there was an advertisement for a forthcoming auction “in Chancery” of the fine furniture, books, and contents of the wine cellar at 6 & 7 Holywell Street. Golightly died at his London address (Brooke House, Upper Clapton, Middlesex) on Christmas Day 1885, and was buried in Holywell Cemetery'

In March 1915, the Cardinal’s Hat, then the property of New College, was let out to accommodate 16 Belgian refugees, and the Oxford Journal Illustrated of 17 March 1915 shows photographs of the exterior, one of the bedrooms, and the smoke-room.

In 1967 planning permission was granted to Merton College for change of use of 6 & 7 Holywell Street from dwelling house to student hostel (67/18743/A_H).