• Home
• Inscriptions
• Parish Marks
• Post Boxes
• Telephone Boxes
• Wayside Stones
• Street lamps
• Research your street

Oxford Inscriptions: Waynflete Building, 1–8 St Clement's Street

On 2 December 1958 Magdalen College was granted planning permission (59/07710/A_H) for college residential accommodation and new shops on the site of the eight houses and shops at 1–8 St Clement's Street. Work started in 1960 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the founding of the college, and the River Block was completed in 1961 and the Street Block in 1962. The buildings were constructed of a concrete frame with Portland Stone facing and a red-brick facade, and the architects were Booth, Ledeboer, and Pinckheard.

The above lettering by Nicolete Gray was on the River Block to the left which faced the Cherwell.

Criticism of the former building:

• The architectural historian Geoffrey Tyack described this red-brick and concrete building as disastrously inappropriate for its superb site at the east end of Magdalen Bridge.
• The poet John Betjeman (who had been an undergraduate at Magdalen) wrote: “It is really terrible. I don’t know what it is. It is not quite modern, it is not old, it is not in scale with anything. The approach to Oxford has been done in for ever, unless they blow it up. I am sure the best intentions went behind that monster ... which is going to ruin Oxford for ever.”
• The Queen's College Record for 1968 says: “The Waynflete building..is a scaleless slab of uncouth outline which academically couth details (inscription in Roman letters on the cornice, etc.) do not redeem.”

The ground floor of the Street Block of the old Waynflete Building at Nos. 1–8 St Clement's Street was always occupied by just one large shop:

• The first occupier was Robert Maxwell who ran “Maxwell's Bookshop” here until 1972.
• This was followed by a House of Holland camping equipment shop to at least 1976
• A Bottoms Up/Thresher's off-licence was here by 2003
• The last occupant was a Sainsbury's Local, and they hope to return when the new building is ready.

---

Demolition and replacement of Waynflete Building

Information from Magdalen College:

• History of the Waynflete Building
• Waynflete Project
• Waynflete Quad update 2
• Waynflete Quad update 3

Approved planning applications for the replacement building and the five old shops adjoining it to the right:

• Waynflete Building itself: 24/01344/FUL (plus conditions: 24/01344/CND, 24/01344/CND3, and 24/01344/CND4)
  “Redevelopment of the site comprising the demolition of the Waynflete Building and the existing extensions at the rear of 9–13 St Clements. Erection of new buildings to accommodate commercial uses at ground level fronting St Clements, replacement student accommodation and sub-dean flats, and provision of a multipurpose space. Installation of comprehensive landscaping scheme”
• Condition 4 of the above confirming that the existing inscription was successfully removed form the building and that it will be relocated at the main entrance of the new one: 24/01344/CND9
• 9–13 St Clement’s Street adjoining: 24/01345/LBC
  “Alterations to Nos 9–13 St Clements including demolition of rear ranges and partial demolition of boundary walls, internal alterations and alterations associated with fabric upgrades to improve thermal performance”.

The Waynflete Building was demolished by the end of 2025. The image below shows the site viewed from Magdalen Bridge on 5 March 2026, with the River Cherwell in the foreground. On the left is the top of the Florey Building at 23–24 St Clement's Street, formerly a hall of residence of the Queen's College: this Grade II* listed building is currently uninhabitable, and the college say that it has been “mothballed”. The building in the middle is Anchor Court in York Place.