59–60 High Street: "Oxford"
No. 59 is the right-hand side of a large Georgian house which is Grade II listed (ref. 1485/423), while No. 60 on the corner of Longwall was demolished and rebuilt in the mid-1930s. Since that date, Nos. 59 and 60 have formed one shop unit, even though No. 59 belongs architecturally with the shop on the left (No. 58).
The Georgian house that used to be the boarding house for Magdalen College School was formerly numbered 58, leaving the number 59 free for the shop tacked on to the corner. But when the school moved to the other side of the High Street in 1894, the house was divided into two shops given the numbers 58 and 59. The corner shop was then allocated the number 60 (with the knock-on effect that the Magdalen Gate House on the other side of the road, which had formerly been numbered 60 and 61, became 61).
At the time of the 1881 census the Revd Harmer C. Ogle, the Master of Magdalen College School, is listed as living at No. 58 (now 58/59) with his two spinster sisters Helen and Camilla, 33 boarders aged from 12 to 18, and the school matron, cook, and six domestic servants.
No. 60 (the right-hand side of the present business, then numbered 59) was occupied upstairs by the printer and publisher who lived downstairs, together with his wife, sister, and a domestic servant.
This advertisement for the Speedwell Cleaning Co. at 59 High Street dates from the 1950s
| Occupiers of 59 & 60 High Street Grey background = former building on this site, now demolished |
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| Date | 59 High Street (numbered 58 along with present No. 58 to 1894) |
60 High Street (numbered 59 to 1894) |
| 1846 | Henry
Dixon Civil engineer |
William
Thompson Print seller |
| By 1852–1872 | Master of Magdalen College School (occupied present 58 and 59) |
William Thompson Print seller later also Painter and decorator |
| 1875–1894 | W. R. Bowden General printer, stationer, & music seller |
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| 1895–1896 | A. W. Brazier House furnisher & valuer –– Mrs Quarterman Lodging house |
W. R. Bowden General printer, stationer, & music seller –– Hartwell de la Garde Grissell, MA, FSA Chamberlain to H.H. The Pope (shop on corner then numbered 59) |
| 1898–1907 | Mrs
Quarterman Lodging house |
Norman Edward Minty Japanese art depot – Hartwell de la Garde Grissell, MA, FSA Chamberlain to H.H. The Pope |
| 1908–1917 | Mrs Quarterman (later Henry George Chamberlain) Lodging house |
The Eastgate Tobacco Store |
| 1918–1931 | Mrs Selby-Smith Private hotel |
George Cooke & Co. Tobacconists |
| 1932 | –– | Eastgate Tobacco Stores |
| 1934–1935 | –– | Bland & Son, umbrella makers |
| 1939–1968 | Lodging house only then Speedwell Cleaning Co. (1954–1968) |
Halford Cycle Co. Ltd (to 1958) Oxford Travel Agency (1960–1968) |
| 1970–2006 | Oxford Travel Agency | |
| 2006–present | "Oxford" + The Letting Shop | |