23: Viyella
The group of five shops numbered 19–23 High Street dates from the late eighteenth century, and the upstairs rooms were converted to Brasenose College accommodation around 1930.
No. 23 is the pink shop to the right (attached to part of Brasenose) and is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/334).
The 1851 census shows James Embling, a widower of 38, living over his tailor’s shop with his son James (a 14-year-old schoolboy) and one servant. He is listed as an employer of six men, and in 1853 the eleven-year-old Henry Taunt, destined to become a famous local photographer, was one of his employees. He earned 4/- a week, and was able to read or paint in the back of the shop when things were quiet; but three years later, at the age of 14, he moved to a job just three shops away at No. 26 and began his photographic career.
James Embling was a tailor at this shop for over forty years. By 1881, at the age of 68, he appears to have married and been widowed a second time: he is still living over the shop, with two sons born after the 1861 census (John and William, both of whom are tailors), two daughters, and a cook and housemaid.
In 1909, when Brasenose College demolished the old Ryman’s at Nos. 24 and 25, Ryman’s moved into this shop and Colin Lunn moved from here into No. 22 next door.
| Occupiers of 23 High Street | |
| 1839 | James
Liddell Tailor |
| 1846–1888 | James
Embling Tailor & robe maker |
| 1890–1893 | F.
Nash Hosier Mrs Florence Hill, Lodging house |
| 1894–1908 | Colin
Lunn Cigar maker Mrs Florence Hill, Lodging house |
| 1909–1968 | Ryman
& Co. Ltd Artists’ materials, fine art, glass, picture & picture frame dealers |
| 1968–2001 | Oxford
Gallery (Joan Crossley-Holland) |
| 2001–2004 | Hampstead Bazaar |
| 2004–2007 | Molton Brown |
| 2007– | Viyella |