83: Oxford Bus Company
No. 83 is probably the only bus drivers’ rest room in the country to sport Ionic columns with the god Bacchus looking over the scrolls. It is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/415A).
The building dates from the seventeenth century, but it was greatly altered in the eighteenth century, when it became part of the Angel Inn. It was rebuilt without a front entrance (see second building from the right in the picture below), as it was approached internally from the inn and not from the street.
In 1855 Samuel Young Griffith had put the declining Angel Inn up for sale, and while no buyer came forward for the main building, the grocer Francis Cooper paid £2,350 for the residue of a forty-year lease on Nos. 83 and 84, and for an annual rent of £120 had the former coffee room at No. 84 for his shop and living accommodation, while letting out this shop at No. 85. In the 1860s this was Henry Hine’s tailor’s shop, and the 1861 census shows him living over the shop with his family.
In 1867 Frank Cooper (1844–1927) inherited the family business at No. 84 next door from his father, and immediately expanded into this shop. It was over this side of the shop that the family actually lived and where Mrs Sarah Cooper made her famous Oxford Marmalade. The 1881 census shows him at No. 83 with his wife and four sons aged 6, 4, 2, and 1, as well as an assistant grocer (who presumably looked after the shop together with Mrs Cooper) and a housemaid and two nurses. (Interestingly, he is described as a station warehouse manager employing four men and 14 boys rather than as a grocer.) Frank Cooper Marmalade still survives today, though it is no longer a family firm or based in Oxford: it is made by Rank Hovis McDougall, which is now part of the Premier Foods Group.
Frank Cooper remained at Nos. 83 and 84 High Street until 1919, when the retail grocery shop was sold to Twining Brothers, who remained until about 1939. It then became a Co-op shop.
From about 1950 to 1976 the whole building was an annexe of University College.
In 1976 the Oxford Bus Company (then the City of Oxford Motor Services) moved here from its former home just two doors away at No. 85.
In the early 1970s, a transfer of property between The Queen’s College and University College brought No. 85 came under the same ownership as its neighbours to the east and the upper floors of Nos. 83–85 were made into a single unit, which has been occupied by students of University College since that date.
| Occupiers of 83 High Street | |
| 1846 | George
Shrimpton Boot & shoe maker — Upstairs: part of the Angel Hotel |
| By 1851–1852+ | Robert Fletcher Cabinet maker & upholsterer |
| 1861–1867 | Henry
Hine Tailor & hatter |
| 1869–1872 | F.
T. Cooper (jointly at No. 84) Italian warehouse |
| 1875–1876 | F.
& A. Cooper (jointly at No. 84) Italian warehousemen, grocers, wine & spirit merchants |
| 1880–1919 | Frank
Cooper (jointly at No. 84) Italian warehouseman |
| 1919–1939 | Twining
Brothers (jointly at No. 84) Grocers |
| 1941–1943 | T.
Pritchard (jointly at No. 84) Ironmonger |
| 1945–1949 | Oxford
& District Co-operative Society Ltd Café (jointly at No. 84) |
| 1952–1975 | University College annexe |
| 1976–present | City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd Oxford Bus Company |