Nos. 1–3: Boswell's
The first five shops of Broad Street proper were demolished in 1928 to make way for Boswell House, a six-storey building comprising a department store for H. Boswell & Co. Ltd, including offices and a restaurant upstairs and two additional small ground-floor shop units (4 & 5 Broad Street) to the left. It was built by E. Organ & Son in 1929, and Boswell’s department store moved in immediately and has been there ever since.
The owner of Boswell’s also owned the Oxford Drug Company in Cornmarket Street, and in 1958 an opening was made to join the two buildings, and they remain united today. They form Oxford’s largest independent department store.
- Boswell’s Francis Boswell originally started selling travelling goods at 50 Cornmarket Street (just north of Frewin Court) in 1738, and his business remained in the Boswell family until its last member died in 1890. It was then bought by Arthur Pearson of the Oxford Drug Company, and until 1928 Boswell’s remained just a small shop at 50 Cornmarket, described in directories as "Portmanteau makers". But when they moved into the present Boswell House in 1929, they soon became "Hardware merchants", and from 1952 they were listed thus: "Hardware & kitchen equipment, refrigeration engineers, leather & travel goods, cutlery, silverware & fancy jewellery & household linens".
- Oxford Drug Company Arthur Pearson had also bought Alderman James Stanley Lowe’s shop at 31 Cornmarket back in 1882, and ran his own ironmonger’s shop there until 1912, when he moved his premises to George Street. By 1889 Pearson had also bought the Oxford Drug Company on the corner of Broad Street, but when it was demolished to make way for William Baker House in 1915, Pearson moved his business round the corner to 31 Cornmarket, which he had rebuilt in 1912 and which now forms the western section of Boswell’s.
Boswell’s and the Oxford Drug Company are still owned by the Pearson family, and have thus been under the same ownership since 1890 (albeit that they were both in other shops in Cornmarket until 1928).
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Businesses that have occupied Boswell House |
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1929–present |
Boswell & Co & Oxford Drug
Company |
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Upstairs |
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1934–1964 |
Kemp Hall Cafeteria ("The Kemp") |
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1968–1976 |
Vintage Car Restaurant |
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1980s |
?? |
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By 1993–1995 |
Chit-Chat Restaurant |
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1996–1999 |
Soprano Restaurant |
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1999–present |
Restaurant du Liban |
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Among the building which had to be demolished to make way for the present Boswell’s was William Baker’s old premises (for more details see the page on William Baker House) and the eighteenth-century North Star pub.
At the time of the 1851 census the North Star pub was occupied by John White and his wife and four young children, while in 1881 the publican was a widow, Mrs Eliza Smith, who lived there with her two sons.
The poet W.B. Yeats lived in the old house at No. 4 Broad Street in the 1920s.
The Martyrs' bastion of the city wall was destroyed when Boswell’s was built.
Pictures from English Heritage:
The advertisement below shows that in 1961 you could get a three-course lunch at The Kemp for 4/6
