46 & 47: Sahara
Nos. 46 & 47 occupy this green block, which was rebuilt by St Edmund Hall in 1975 in the late eighteenth-century style. It was designed by Gilbert Howes, and incorporates college accommodation above.
Nos. 46 & 47 were turned into a single shop in 2005.
46 High Street
Francis T. Cooper was originally a hatter and hosier in the former shop that was on this site. After acting as an agent for Ridgeway’s Tea he went over to become a grocer in about 1845, and in the 1851 census is described as "Tea dealer and Italian warehouse". He was then living over the shop with his wife Decima, his three young sons Frank, Frederick, and Arthur, his porter and three shop assistants, and two servants. He also found room for two lodgers (a barrister and his wife). In 1856 Cooper moved his shop to 83 High Street, where his son Frank was to create Frank Cooper’s Oxford Marmalade.
It then became a draper’s shop under Henry Stew, who at the time of the 1861 census was a widower living upstairs with his four young children, three servants, and three lodgers (two of his shop assistants and the Curate of St Mary Magdalen Church). He was still there in 1881: he had married again and had five children.
47 High Street
Miss Elizabeth Dry, a fundholder, lived at No. 47 with a servant at the time of the 1851 census: a small household compared with the 13 in the matching house next door. It was a private house or lodging house from the 1830s until it was rebuilt in 1975.
| Occupiers of 46 & 47 High
Street Grey background = occupier of former building on this site | ||
| Date | 46 | 47 |
|
By 1839–1853 |
Francis Thomas Cooper |
Miss Elizabeth Dry |
| 1866 | Henry Stew Draper & mercer |
F. Winter Clarke General Medical Practitioner |
| 1872–1880 | Henry Banks Spencer, M.D. Surgeon |
|
| 1884–1894 | T. Carter & Frederick Carter Lodging house |
|
| 1898–1904 | Ernest W. Twining (later Twining Bros.) Grocer |
|
| 1905–1912 | Mrs C. Knott Lodging house |
|
| 1913–1916 | Walter James Carter | |
| 1918–1920 | Percy R. Gillam University lodging house |
|
| 1921–1932 | Andrews (Oxford) Ltd. Saddlers |
|
| 1932–1939 | Not listed: probably university lodgings |
|
| 1941 | Nicholson & Kenn Works of art |
|
| 1943–1954 | Slatter & Rose Ltd. Booksellers, newsagents & stationers |
|
| 1956–1968 | Wyman’s Bookseller (& Post Office in 1962) – John Menzies in 1968 only |
|
| 1969–1976 | Vacant/Being rebuilt | |
| 1976–1992 | ? | ? |
| 1993–1998 | ? | Save the Children Charity Shop |
| By 1998–2004 | Sahara Ladies’ fashion |
|
| 2005–present | Sahara | |