33: Links Communications
No 33 dates from the seventeenth century, but its front was changed in the eighteenth century. It marks the site of Drawda Hall, named after William Drogheda who held it in the thirteenth century. It is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/351) owned by The Queen’s College.
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. According to Salter, No. 33 was then in the occupation of a Mr Glass, and its frontage measured 6 yards 2 feet 11 inches.
In 1851 this was Charles Feldon’s tailor’s shop, and he lived upstairs with his wife and seven children, and a female servant; he was still there in 1861.
James Thornton, the bookseller who was here in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was 33 at the time of the 1881 census and lived in Park Town: he is listed as the employer of two assistants, a clerk, two apprentices, and a shop-boy. He also had a bookshop at 41 High Street from 1882 to 1884. He was the son of the founder of Thornton’s bookshop, which started life in a shop at the former 51 High Street (on the site of the present No 50).
At the time of the 1881 census the upstairs premises were occupied by a widow and her governess daughter with a lodger and servant. William Hunt’s typewriter business which operated from upstairs in 1923 later migrated to Broad Street.
From 1902 to 1912 Robert Günther lived over this shop. He was an Oxford don and the editor of The Oxford Country (1912), a collection of Victorian and Edwardian articles describing walks in Oxfordshire.
| Occupiers of 33 High Street | |
| 1839, 1846 | Richard
Giles Tailor |
| 1852 | Charles
Feldon Tailor & robe maker & cassock maker |
| 1866–1871 | J.
A. Muir (P. J. Muir in 1866 only) Tailor & hosier |
| 1872–1907 | James
Thornton New & secondhand bookseller & publisher |
| 1908–1912 | Horser & Storey Booksellers |
| 1912–1929 | Horser Cottrell Bookseller William Hunt The Pioneer Typewriter dealer &c. (to 1922) |
| 1930–1962 | Drawda
Hall Bookshop Booksellers |
| 1964–1980+ | Drawda
Hall High-class gifts, glass &c. |
| By 1989–2002 | Partner’s Hairdressing |
| 2002–2004 | Red
on High Fashion |
| 2004–2006 | Kiboko |
| 2006– | Links Communications |