No. 44: Former shop
No. 44 Broad Street was the fourth from the left of the thirteen houses dating from the first half of the seventeenth century that were that were demolished to make way for the New Bodleian Library in the late 1930s.
There was a narrow passage between Nos. 44 and 45, leading to the outbuildings attached to the back of the shop.
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 44 was then in the occupation of L. Thorp, and its frontage measured 7 yards 0 feet 10 inches. In 1774 Parson Woodforde paid many visits to "Thorpe the hosier".
The 1851 census shows John C. Thorp, a 28-year-old draper and employer of eight men, living over the shop with his wife and two young children. Three of his employees lodge in the house, and there is also a cook and two nursemaids.
At the time of the 1861 census Thorp’s partner, James Waldie, a Scotsman aged 36, was living over the shop with his wife and two young children, along with three other shop assistants and four servants. Below is an advertisement placed by the firm in the Oxford Directory for 1861, showing that they were also undertakers.
In 1881 the house is occupied by Webber Patterson, an unmarried mason of 46 and the employer of three men, two women, and a boy. Presumably his employees ran the downstairs draper’s shop which bore his name. Three of the shop assistants lodged in the house, and there were also two servants, one of them a draper’s porter.
See the bound typescript in the Bodleian Library entitled "The Demolished Houses of Broad Street and the Freeborn Family" (1943), attributed to Emily Sarah Freeborn, and the webpage by Alan Simpson which reproduces some of the material in it.
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Occupants of 44 Broad Street listed in directories |
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1829–1876 |
Thorp, Linen Drapers, Silk Mercers, Haberdashers, Hosiers &c. John Thorp (1829, 1839) |
1880–1887 |
Patterson Webber (late Thorp & Waldie) |
1889 |
Richard Ward, Linen draper, Silk mercer, and Undertaker |
1890–1906 |
Henry Edward Abrams, Dealer in antique & high-class furniture |
1907–1925 |
Francis Cambray, Antique furniture warehouse |
1925–1936 |
Cecil A. Halliday, Antique furniture warehouse |
This house was demolished with twelve neighbouring
houses in 1937 |
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