56 Holywell Street, Oxford

56 Holywell Street

56 Holywell Street has a late eighteenth-century front on a house that is probably older. It is owned by Merton College.

It is a Grade II Listed Building (1369380, with the following description:

No 56 SP 5106 NE 6/734 II GV 2. Late C18 front on a probably older house. Stucco fronted with corner pilasters. Three storeys, three windows, sashes with glazing bars; the ground floor windows are slightly recessed with arches. The second floor windows have cast iron grilles. Parapet with band, roof not visible. The entrance is in Bath Place.

Because its front door faces Bath Place rather than Holywell Street, in some early directories it is listed under the former, with the house next door (No. 57) wrongly given the number 56.

The following advertisement appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal on18 July 1835 for the auction of some large premises nearly opposite Holywell Music Roo, and it may refer to No. 56:

All those extensive BUILDINGS; consisting of a Dwelling House and large Premises, lately used as billiard rooms, with bake-house, wash-house, large yard, and appurtenances, nearly opposite the Music Room, in Holywell, Oxford, and well calculated for the erection of small houses. The above property is held under the City of Oxford, for a term of 39 years, from Lady-day, 1834.

Until 1911 this house appears to have been mostly occupied by people connected with the stables behind on the east side of Bath Place, but there is some uncertainty because of the discrepancy in the numbering here. In 1911, for instance, directories say that No. 56 was occupied by a veterinary surgeon, but the census that year lists a groom here. It is possible that some of the people listed here in fact lived in another building behind.

56 Holywell Street in the censuses

1841

The 1841 census for Holywell does not give house numbers, but it is possible to deduce where people listed that year lived by examining directory entries between 1839 and 1842 and later censuses

Thomas Day (25), a groom, lived here with his wife Ann (25).

1851

Thomas Day (40), described as head groom at a livery stables, still lived here with his wife Ann (39) and their children Thomas (7), Frederick (3), and Henry (2).

1861

Edwin Cooke (26), a groom, lived here with his wife Ann (25) and his children Elizabeth (3) and Mary (6 months). They had two lodgers, both grooms.

1871

William Kerry (35), a baker, is listed as living at No. 56 with with his wife Emma (36).

1881

No. 56 is not listed. At No. 56A is the bootmaker Richard Best (48), who lived here with his wife Matilda (39) and his children Richard (14), who was a printer’s apprentice, Florence (6), and Beatrice (4). The latter may have been connected to the bootmaker William Bunce at 1 Bath Place.

1891

Richard Butler (54), a domestic coachman, lived here with his wife Emily (54) and their daughters Louisa (25) and Alice (19), who were both machinists.

1901

John Trinder (26), a domestic groom, lived here with his wife Mary (25) and his children Agnes (2) and George (four months).

1911

Frederick Mercer (31), a coachman, lived here with his wife Caroline (30).

1921

The widowed caretaker Rosa Capper (47) lived here with her son Albert (13).

1939 Register

Top flat: No listing
Middle flat: Two students are listed here with a married woman
who undertook unpaid domestic duties
Ground-floor flat: Arthur J. Brown, a Fellow of All Souls College, is listed here with his wife Joan.

Occupants of 56 Holywell Street listed in directories etc.
1772 Survey of Oxford	Mr Johnson and others: stables Frontage: 12 yds 1 ft 0 7 in
1851	Thomas Day Head groom at livery stables
1861	Edwin Cook (a groom) in directories
1866	(Treated as Bath Place)
1872	C. Symonds, Coach house
1875–1876	Dr F. Child
1881	Richard Best, shoemaker, at 56A in census
1884–1899	Richard Butler, Coachman
1901	John Trinder, groom
1905–1916	Robert G. Gillard, Veterinary surgeon
1926–1933	Mac’s Garage (Macpherson’s Garage & Stables Ltd) Macpherson's Garage & Stables Ltd (stables) in 1933
1935	P. W. Powell, antique dealer
1936–1938	No listing
	Flat 1	Flat 2	Flat 3
1940–1943	Arthur J. Brown	Vacant	G. Frecheville
1945		William John Moir, M.B.
1947	E. C. Thompson	Mrs T. Gordon
1949	R. C. O. Matthews	J. V. Eva	Sir Charles Normand, C.I.E., D.Sc.
1952	John S. Millward	Ludwig A. Moritz
1954		John O. Woodward
1956	Rodney Needham, B.Litt., D.Phil.
1958–1960		Mrs G. S. Gordon
1962	Miss Anson-Owen
1964–1966	Ernest W. Godwin
1967		Robert T. Farrell
1970		R. Joshi Vijay
1972	Cedric G. Carrington	No listing
1973–1976	Alec Jeffreys	Rodney Needham, BLitt, MA, DPhil, DLitt	Dennis Parsons
Today	Merton College annexe