No. 53: Blackwell's Local Books
The original house on this site passed into the hands of the city in 1569. The present building had the following lessees in the first half of the nineteenth century:
1814:
Samuel Collingwood, printer
(in his occupation)
1828:
Samuel Collingwood’s lease renewed
(in occupation of Rev.
Burton)
1842:
John Collingwood and Joseph Parker (executors of Samuel
Collingwood Esq.) (occupied by Mrs Lloyd)
Samuel Collingwood was the Superintendent of the University Press, which until 1832 was conveniently situated just across the road in the Clarendon Building; he retired after 36 years in the post in 1838. G. V. Cox in his Recollections of Oxford wrote of him:
"A.D. 1841. JAN 1. Died Mr. Collingwood, the Superintendent of the University Press. It was a proof of the liberality of the University, that its chief printer was known to be a zealous Dissenter. He was an accomplished, amiable, and good man, as well as an excellent printer, in which character, from the liberal share of the profits granted to him by the University, he accumulated a considerable fortune. His widow was his fourth wife; or, as he used to say, his "fourth edition".
The 1841 census shows the house occupied by Miss Mary Lloyd; she is also there in 1851, a widowed annuitant of 62. She is listed in the "Gentry" lists in directories, and she and her 22-year-old daughter were looked after by a housekeeper, cook, housemaid, and footman.
At the time of the 1861 census, the house is occupied by George Rawlinson, MA, a clergyman, his wife and eight children, and four servants.
William Slay, who was living in this house at the time of the 1881 census, came from quite a different class: he was a college bedmaker with a wife, seven sons, and a baby daughter. Notwithstanding his relatively humble position, he had four live-in servants himself: a cook, housemaid, kitchenmaid, and nursemaid. The census was taken out of term: perhaps in term-time there were students boarding with him.
From 1901 to 1922 the ground floor was a doctor’s surgery, and in 1919 Trinity College purchased the garden of this house to form part of the site of their library and its rose garden.
In 1924 this house was granted by Oxford City Council to St Mary Magdalen Church in exchange for St George’s Church in George Street, which had become disused. It served as their vicarage for the next twenty years.
In 1946 Trinity College purchased the freehold of the building, thanks to a bequest from Mr C.B. Marriott, and it became part of the college, known as Marriott House. It was used initially to house the Dean of the college.
In 1964 it had been damaged to such an extent by death-watch beetle that everything behind the street frontage had to be pulled down. Trinity rebuilt it with undergraduate rooms on the upper floor, but have let the ground floor to Blackwell’s since 1966. Originally their art bookshop, it is now their local books section.
|
Occupants of 53 Broad Street listed in directories |
|
1830–1852+ |
Mrs Mary H. Lloyd, Gentry |
1861–1872 |
Revd George Rawlinson, Professor of Ancient History |
1875–1884 |
William Slay |
1885–1899 |
Miss Mary Ann Lockwood, University lodgings |
1901–1909 |
Robert W. Doyne, FRCS, Surgeon |
1911–1922 |
Philip Edward H. Adams, MA, MB, DO Oxon, FRCS Eng |
1923–1947 |
Revd Bartle Starmer Hack, MA plus the following doctors: 1929- 1930: Miss Dorothy Whitely,
BM, B.Ch. Oxon,Physician & Surgeon 1934–1945: Miss Victoria Smallpeice, MD, BS, MRCP Lond., Physician (consulting room) 1935–1947: Miss Mary Fraser, MD, BS Lond., Medical practitioner 1947: Mrs Eleanor J. Herrin, MD, BCh, DCH, Physician (consulting room) |
1954–1964 |
Alfred James Holladay, MA |
Since 1971 |
Blackwell’s |