47–51 Cornmarket
.
Left: The present
Nos. 47–51, which were rebuilt in 1871,
in c.1900
The name WOODWARD and the number 51 can be seen above the door on the left
Three doors to the right LONG’S REGISTRY shows up clearly on the upstairs window of No. 48
The original shops were occupied as follows in 1772, when a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771:
- 48: Mr Speakman (frontage 3 yards, 0 ft. and 10 in.)
- 49: Mr Rought (frontage 4 yards, 2 ft. and 0 in.
- 50: Mr Boswell (frontage 5 yards, 2 ft. and 6 in.)
- 51: Mr Lawrance (frontage 5 yards, 2 ft. and 2 in.)
The four shops at Nos. 47–51 Cornmarket were rebuilt in 1871.
Henry Boswell had opened his first trunk & portmanteau shop in the earlier shop at 50 Cornmarket. In about 1870 he also took over No. 49 next door, and soon afterwards had the group of shops rebuilt, taking over 49 and 50 for himself. The firm remained here until 1929, when it moved to his current purpose-built premises on the corner of Broad Street.
The tailor Henry William Wilton Woodward moved into No. 51 as soon as it was rebuilt. In the early 1920s he moved to 110 High Street, prior to amalgamating with Arthur Shepherd in 1927.
In the Censuses
1841
No. 47: The druggist William Sutton (30) is living over his shop with one apprentice and one female servant.
No. 48: The bell-hanger Francis Boswell (80) is living over his shop with Susanna (66), Hannah (35), who is described as a dressmaker, and Henry (23), described as a cabinet-maker.
No. 49: The stationer Mary Ann Fry is living over her shop with two female servants.
No. 50: The trunk-maker Jane Boswell (35) is living over her shop with Henry (6), Edward (3), and Jane (4 months). They have one female servant.
No. 51: The stationer Charles Richards (35) is living over his shop with Ann (40), George (12), Charles (6), John (4), and one female servant.
1851
No, 47: The druggist Charles Coward (28) is living over his shop with his wife Harriet (26) and sons Charles (1) and William (one month). An apprentice and one general servant and a nursemaid live with them.
No. 48: Miss Charlotte Boswell (51), described as a tradesman’s daughter, lives over the shop with three lodgers (two male and one female).
No. 49: John Joseph Kitts (26), a draper’s clerk, lives over the shop of his wife Elizabeth (29), who is described as a dealer in baby linen etc. Two shop assistants live with them (one of whom is Elizabeth’s 20-year-old sister Lydia Payne), and they have one female servant.
No. 50: The portmanteau-maker Francis Boswell (48), described as the employer of five men, is living over his shop with his wife Jane Duncan Boswell (45) and their children Henry (16), who is described as an assistant; Edward (13); Jane (10); Eliza (8), Frank (6); and Mary Anne (4).
No. 51: The glass & china dealer Joseph Hopkins (45) is living over his shop with his wife Catherine (48), his unmarried brother (43), who is his shop assistant, and his two nieces Emma Hopkins (19), described as a general servant, and Mary Hopkins (7).
1861
No, 47: The draper Walter Cooper (28) is living over his shop with three female draper’s assistants and a female servant.
No. 48: The widowed music-seller Marianne Barrett (72) is living over her shop with her grandson William Studer Barrett (15), who is described as an Assistant, and a female house servant.
No. 49: The hairdresser Henry Saunders (24) is living over his shop with his wife Catherine and children Mary (4), Frederick (3), and Eleanor (1). The family has two house servants.
No. 50: The portmanteau maker Francis Boswell (54) is living over his shop. He is described as the employer of four men and five boys, and with him are his wife Jane (54) and his six unmarried children Henry (26), who is described as a trunk maker; Edward (23), who is described as a cabinet maker; Jane (20) and Eliza (18), who are described as shop women; Frank (16), who is described as a portmanteau maker’s assistant; and Mary Ann (13), who is still at school.
No. 51: The china & glass dealer Joseph Hopkins (56) is living over his shop with his wife Catherine (58), his brother Thomas (54) who serves in the shop, and his niece Mary (18), an assistant in the shop. The family has one female servant.
1881
No, 47: Described as “uninhabited”, which implies that the whole building was used as a draper’s shop.
No. 48: This was a lodging house, occupied by Miss Laura Collier (42), who was the lodging house keeper and her mother Elizabeth (72). They have two general servants.
No. 49: Described as “uninhabited”, which is not surprising given the number of offices upstairs.
No. 50: This was occupied by a college bed maker, William Hemmings (29) and his wife Martha (21) and their 6-month-old daughter, and his cousin Ernest Hinton (16).
No. 51: This was a lodging house, occupied by Mrs E. Thatcher (49) and her niece Ada Irving (23). There are two domestic servants and two lodgers: a single woman of 31 and a male student of 23.
Occupants of 47–51 Cornmarket listed in directories etc. |
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Date |
No. 51 (left) | No. 50 | No. 49 | No. 48 | No. 47 (right) |
1839 |
Robert Braine |
H. Boswell Francis Boswell H. Boswell |
Mary Ann Fry |
F. Boswell senior
|
William Sutton Sarah Robinson |
1846 |
Charles Richards |
Charlotte (or “Carol.”) Boswell |
Edward Kent |
||
1851 |
Joseph Hopkins |
Mrs E. Kitts |
Charles Coward |
||
1861 |
Henry Saunders |
Mrs Marianne Barrett, Music seller, in 1861 F. R. Barrett |
Walter Cooper |
||
1867 |
W. Hammond |
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1872 |
Mrs Hopkins |
Henry Boswell |
G. J. Neill |
W. Cooper |
|
1874 |
Shops rebuilt by Henry Boswell |
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1880 |
Woodward & Richmond Henry W. Wilton Woodward with Woodward Wilton & Co. Ltd |
Henry Boswell Upstairs: G. D. D. Dudley, Solicitor H. Sandford-Burton, Dentist University Type Writing & General Copying Office Plymouth Brethren Meeting Room The Good Luck Tea Rooms (1921) J. R. Chaundy |
C. Lillingston
and William Joseph Hacking, lodging house in 1890
and |
C. Cracknell |
|
1890 |
Henry Robert Harris |
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1899– |
Brown & Garlick |
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1911 |
Foort & Son |
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1914 |
Barlow & Allen Ltd, Ironmongers |
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1921 |
The Oxford Optical Co., Opticians |
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1928 |
Colin Lunn |
No listing | |||
1932 |
Boynton Gowns
|
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1935 |
Fleming, Reid & Co Scotch Wool & Hosiery Stores from 1952 |
Sands + Long’s Registry to 1947 + La Roma snack bar from 1952 |
Part of |
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1952– |
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1958– |
Weston’s Gowns | ||||
1967 |
Weston’s Gowns |
Etam’s Ltd |
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1970 |
Etam’s Ltd | – | – | ||
1973– |
Ratner’s Jewellers |
Van Allen gowns |
Harry Fenton |
Etam’s Ltd |
|
2008– |
Lush Cosmetics |
Clark’s Shoes |
Thornton’s chocolates |
Carphone Warehouse to 2007 |
|
Old pictures on other websites and in books
Design of Nos. 47–51 by the architect (F. Codd), made in 1870 and photographed by Henry Taunt in 1879
Nos. 48–51 in 1910 by Henry Taunt
Nos. 49–51 in 1910 by Henry Taunt
Nos. 50–51 in 1911 by Henry Taunt
A photograph of the former shops at Nos. 49, 50, and 51 in about 1870 can be seen in Julie Kennedy, The Changing Faces of Oxford City Centre, Book 1, p. 45
See Michael L. Turner and David Vaisey, Oxford Shops and Shopping, p. 44, illustration 59 for a photograph of Woodward’s shop at No. 51 in c.1900
Ibid., p. 52, illustration 117 for Boswell’s earlier shop at 49 & 50 Cornmarket
Ibid., p. 53, illustration 118 for Boswell’s new shop at Nos. 49–50