107: A-Plan Insurance
No. 107 (left) together with No. 106, its neighbour to the east, originally formed Tackley’s Inn, an academic hall built in 1320. The pair of houses, which are owned by Oriel College, were refronted in the eighteenth or nineteenth century and are Grade II* listed (ref. 1485/383).
They have a fine medieval vaulted cellar, part of which is incorporated into the present office at No. 107, which also occupies the whole refectory hall.
Tackley’s Inn was built c.1320 by Roger le Mareschal, who had the living of Tackley. Adam de Brome acquired it from him in 1324 as a home for Oriel College, who still own the building. It is one of the very few surviving examples of a medieval academic hall. The building was divided into two as early as 1438, and this side then became known as The Tavern. In 1549 the whole hall and the shops in front were leased to Garbrand Harkes, a Dutch Protestant refugee, who sold books from the ground floor and wine from the vaulted cellar. It remained a bookshop until the end of the seventeenth century, and then became Puffett’s Coffee House.
At the time of the 1851 census, Nance[?] Slatter and his son John, partners in the tailoring business at No. 107, lived over the shop with four of John’s siblings and a general servant. Two families are listed between Nos. 106 and 107 as living in "Slatter’s Yard", which must have been behind this shop.
In 1861, No. 107 was occupied by Edward Wells, a "Haberdasher and Register for Servants" and his family.
Later that year the well-known Boffin’s Bakery moved here from two doors away at No. 109. It remained at No. 107 for over forty years until it moved again to Carfax in 1907. The 1881 census reveals that the Boffins lived in some style over the shop: the family were away on census night, but their staff were in the house: a housekeeper, housemaid, and kitchenmaid, and two confectioners’ assistants. The advertisement on the left was placed in Alden’s Oxford Guide of 1906.
| Occupiers of 107 High Street | |
| 1839. 1846, 1852 | Thomas
Slatter, Tailor (1839, 1846) Henry Swallow Slatter, Silversmith & jeweller N. Slatter & Co, Tailors & robe makers Slatter & Swallow, Watch & clock makers (all 1852) |
| 1861–1906 | Boffin’s Confectioner (James Boffin 1866–1887, Alfred Boffin 1888–1904) |
| 1907–1913 | Norman
E. E. Minty Cook & confectioner |
| 1914–1916 | W.
Moon & Son Pastry cooks & confectioners |
| 1916–1917 | Bartlett
& Carter Breeches makers & tailors |
| 1918–1962 | Joseph
E. Bradbury later Bradbury & Venables Tailor 107A: Norman Taylor, Photographer (1918–1947) Mrs B. Woodward (later Thomas Robert Woodward), Café (1949–1954) Bianca Kirsch, Café (1956) The Tackley Restaurant (1958–1962) |
| 1970–1976+ | Abbey National Building Society |
| By 1993–present | A-Plan Insurance |