39–41: Queen’s Lane Coffee House
The large white block shown in the above photograph, numbered 39–41, has an eighteenth-century front, but was otherwise rebuilt by The Queen’s College in 1967–8, when the yards at the back were incorporated into the Queen’s Lane quad. The two left-hand units have been occupied by Queen’s Lane Coffee House since 1970, and in 2003 it also expanded to the remaining unit on the right. The whole block forms a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/415).
It is believed that Oxford’s first coffee house, in 1654, may have been on or near this site. Certainly there was a coffee house, known as Harper’s, here in the second half of the eighteenth century. But the present use of the building as a coffee house only dates from c.1970.
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. According to Salter, Nos. 39 & 40 were then in the occupation of a Mr Harper, and their frontage measured 9 yards 1 foot 0 inches, while 41 was occupied by a Mr Fidler and measured 7 yards 0 feet 2 inches.
1851 census
- No. 39: The Manciple of St Edmund Hall, William Gardener, lived here with his wife Mary, two servants, and an undergraduate lodger. A later Manciple, Thomas D. Jackson, was here with his wife, four children, and two servants in 1861.
- No. 40: Charles Castle, the tobacconist here, lived over his shop with his wife, three children, and a servant. By 1861 the shop had been taken over by the "carver & gilder & dealer in Berlin wool" John Davis, who lived here with his family.
- No. 41: William Graham, the bookseller here, lived over the shop with his wife, his two bookseller sons, his daughter, and a servant. In 1861, antoher bookseller, Henry Hammans, was here. From 1882 to 1894 James Thornton (the son of the founder of Thornton’s bookshop) had a shop here at No. 41 (and another at No. 33 from 1872 to 1907). Henry Taunt the photographer moved here for a short time in 1894 when the lease on his Broad Street shop ran out before moving on to No. 34.
The shops at Nos. 39–41 were unoccupied at the time of the 1881 census, which suggests some rebuilding was taking place at the time.
English Heritage: No. 40 in the middle in 1906 when it was Field Antiques
Below left: The sign "High Street Post Office" can be seen attached to No. 39 in this detail from an old postcard. This shop on the corner of Queen’s Lane was a post office from 1890 to 1927.
Below right: This advertisement dates from the 1950s, when No. 41 was McKay’s Café.
| Occupiers of 39–41 High Street | |||
Date |
39 High Street | 40
High Street | 41
High Street |
| 1839 | William Thompson
& Son Printsellers, House painters | Charles
Castle Tobacconist | William
Graham Bookseller |
| 1846–1853 | The
Manciple of St Edmund Hall | ||
| 1861–1883 |
Thomas Davis Jackson Manciple of St Edmund Hall (to 1876) | Miss E. Davis Berlin wool repository | Messrs
J. & F.H. Rivington Publishers (1867–76) |
| 1884–1889 | Christopher
Maltby Manciple of St Edmund Hall (1880–1889) | Mrs
Wilkins Berlin wool, art needlework, & fancy repository (1884-5) Mrs Albert Edward Solloway Berlin wool, art needlework, & fancy repository; Registry office for servants; and High Street Post & Money Order Office (from 1889) | James
Thornton Bookseller & Publisher (1882–94) |
| 1890–1927 | Miss
S. French | Hubert
Field Antique furniture dealer (from 1900) | H.W.
Taunt & Co., Photographers etc. (1894-5) — Mrs M.C. Bickmore, Dealer in antiques (1895–7) — Mrs M.A. Smith, Restorer of paintings & dealer in antiques (1898–1904) — The Ladies’ Association, Antique Furniture, oil paintings, and old china (1905–8) — The Antiquary (Archibald Graham) (& No. 48), renamed Ye Old Book Shoppe 1927 (1909–29) |
| 1928–1935 | Hubert
Field Antique furniture dealer | Coverley
Bookshop (B.H. Blackwell Ltd) (1930–1) Davenant Bookshop (1932–9) | |
| 1936–1966 | Culpeper
House Society of Herbalists Ltd (also at No. 41 in 1941) | Culpeper
House (1941) McKay’s Café (1952–60) Copper Kettle (1962–7) | |
| 1970–2003 | Queen’s Lane Coffee House | Magna
Gallery Antique dealers; later Old maps & Prints | |
| 2003–present | Queen’s Lane Coffee House | ||