History of Holyoake Hall shops
Until 1980, all the shops on the ground floor of Holyoake Hall at 126–134 London Road (then owned by University College) were part of the Headington Co-op. The Co-op stretched around the corner into Windmill Road, with the present Buckell & Ballard offices a haberdashery on the ground floor and a ladies' outfitter on the first floor, while Queen’s was a Co-op grocery.
In 1956 the dance hall upstairs closed, and by 1959 it was a Co-op furniture showroom (including carpets). In 1968 it opened as the Plaza Bingo Hall (later Zetter’s Bingo), and finally it was a snooker hall.
When the Co-op moved to its present site on Stile Road in 1980, the five ground-floor units of Holyoake Hall were let out separately.
Unit 5 |
Unit 4 |
Unit 3 |
Unit 2 |
Unit 1 |
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| 1958– 1980 |
Co-op ladies' hairdresser |
Co-op |
Co-op greengrocer, |
Co-op |
Co-op |
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| 1980 | Pet World |
Ladbroke’s |
Queenie’s |
Charity shop then Focus Electronics then Cake shop |
Denton’s |
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| 1990 | Domino’s Pizza |
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| 1995 | Domino’s |
Oxford |
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| 1998 | |||||||
| 2001 | Café |
Matthew Clulee |
Co-op Travel Care |
Co-op Funeral Service |
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| 2007– |
Betfred (not yet moved in) |
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There been two successful applications for change of use of the shops in Holyoake Hall:
- In 1977 Ladbroke’s of 10 Windmill Road obtained advance permission to change Unit 4 from retail to licensed betting shop (77/00717/A_H)
- In 1980 the Queen of Hearts of 3 Windmill Road obtrained permission to change Unit 3 from retail shop to coffee room, to include the sale of take-away food and party catering (80/00576/NF). Domino’s Pizza took this take-away over in 1990. Four years later in 1994 Domino’s split Unit 3 in half, and the Oxford Kebab House took the right-hand side of this A3 unit.
In 2003 Holyoake Hall was sold by University College to property developers W.E. Black Ltd of Chesham, and the former hall upstairs was converted into flats.