The High, Oxford: 95-101

95–101: Rhodes Building, Oriel College

The Rhodes Building of 1911 (shown in the above photograph) was designed by Basil Champneys and paid for by a bequest of Cecil Rhodes, who had been an undergraduate at Oriel College. It is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/370A).

There is a statue of Rhodes high up over the main entrance, with Edward VII and George V beneath. The inscription reads:

E:LARGA:MVNIFICENTIA
CAECILII:RHODES

As well as acknowleding Cecil Rhodes’ munificence, the large letters are a chronogram giving the date of construction, MDCCCLLVIIIIII.

95-101 High Street

The building fills the whole stretch of the High between Magpie Lane and Oriel Street, and seven houses had to be demolished to make room for it: they can be seen in the picture on the left and (from the other direction) here on the English Heritage website.

The new college building was not universally regarded as an enhancement to the street; in his memoirs of 1927, W. E. Sherwood wrote that Oriel had "broken out into the High, … destroying a most picturesque group of old houses in so doing, and, to put it gently, hardly compensating us for their removal". This picture of No. 98 (Hedderley’s tobacconist shop) from the English Heritage site shows how charming the old buildings were.

James Morris in Oxford (1965) writes: "If you are very old indeed, you are probably still fuming about the façade built in the High Street by Oriel College in 1909, which most of us scarcely notice nowadays, but used to be thought an absolute outrage."

Several of the businesses in this row of shops later flourished elsewhere in Oxford:

Adamson & Co. Tailors moved across Oriel Street to huge new premises at 102/103 High Street in 1891;
Hall Bros Tailors moved to 94 High Street and later to 119;
Joseph Vincent moved to 109;
The junior photographer James Soame joined up with Gillman to form Gillman & Soame, the photographic firm that still survives today.

The ecclesiastical warehouse based at No. 99 in this row may well have been in the mind of Thomas Hardy when he wrote Jude the Obscure in 1895. Jude’s cousin Sue Bridehead who lived in Oxford was:

an artist or designer of some sort in what was called an ecclesiastical warehouse, which was a perfect seed-bed of idolatry… The shop seemed to be kept entirely by women. It contained Anglican books, stationery, texts, and fancy goods; little plaster angels on brackets, Gothic-framed pictures of saints, ebony crosses that were almost crucifixes, prayer-books that were almost missals.

Occupiers of the site of 95–101 High Street Grey background = former buildings on this site, now demolished
Date	95	96	97	98	99	100	101
1839	John Bellman Hairdresser & Perfumer	Henry Tubber Pastry cook & confectioner	Charles Feldon Tailor & Robe maker	Ann Davis Pastry Cook	John Bayne Cutler & Baker	Thomas Roberts Jeweller	James Spiers* Chemist & druggist
1846	M. R., King Berlin warehouse	E. T. Spiers Bookseller	Charles Feldon, Tailor	Charles W. Robinson Tailor	Ann Bayne Cutler	Thomas Roberts Jeweller	Henry Brown Chemist & druggist
1876	George P. Day Bookseller, stationer, & photographer	Flack & Smith Bootmaker	E. T. Spiers & Co. Wine & spirit merchants	John King Tobacconist	Mrs Wells Berlin and ecclesiastical warehouse	Adamson & Co. Hosiers, hatters, & shirt makers
1898	George Richard Beesley Mrs M. H. Beesley Milliner	Joseph Vincent Stationer Alfred Edwin Hunt University lodgings	96A & 97: Hall Bros. Tailors Mrs Elizabeth Green University lodgings	William Hedderley (executors of) Tobacconist, cricketing outfitters, etc.	Mrs Ellen Davis Ecclesiastical warehouse	Edwin Saunders Optician	James Soame jun. Photographer James Langley, BA Solicitor
1908	Miss A. K. Baughan Milliner	Frank Thomas Long Cutler	Mrs Elizabeth Green University lodgings	William Hedderley Tobacconist, cricket outfitters, etc.	Mrs Ellen Davis Ecclesiastical warehouse	Edwin Saunders Optician to the Eye Hospital	James Soame jun. Photographer
Since 1911	Rhodes Building, Oriel College

* The chemist David Morphew announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 16 December 1832 that he was retiring through ill-health, and that his successor in business would be James Spiers.