126: Bonjour
No. 126 dates from the fifteenth century, and has a late seventeenth-century façade. It is the only remaining example of this type of architecture in Oxford. The structure of the fifteenth-century house can be seen inside, and the cellar is probably medieval. It is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/343).
The first owner of this house was a bell-founder, and in 1350 it was owned by St Frideswide Abbey. It was refronted in the later seventeenth century, probably by Robert Pauling, a mercer who was Mayor in 1679.
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 126 was then in the occupation of a Mr Madge, and its frontage measured 6 yards 2 feet 9inches.
Thomas Mallam senior started a separate auctioneering business from his father’s business at St Aldate’s at this house, probably from the time of his marriage in about 1816, and in addition operated as a tobacconist and estate agent. He was also Mayor of Oxford in 1839 and 1846. He died in 1850. One of his sons (Thomas Mallam junior) founded a firm of solicitors here, and the other (James Richard Mallam) took over the auctioneering and estate agent side of the business. The solicitors (with new partners) are still in the same building (now accessed from the side lane), but Mallam’s auction house is now in St Michael Street.
After the death of Thomas Mallam senior in 1850, the upstairs premises appear to have been let out. In 1851 they were occupied by a railway porter and his seamstress wife and their servant; in 1861 by Henry Ives, a solicitor’s clerk, and his family; and in 1881 by William Spindler, an auctioneer’s porter, and his wife.
Below: Engraving made in 1834 by Orlando Jewitt, showing No. 126 on the far left.
| Occupiers of 126 High Street | |
| 1823–1874 |
Mallam & Son Oxford Chronicle Printing Office (from 1837) |
| 1875–1896 | James R. Mallam & Son Auctioneers, surveyors, & estate agents T. & G. Mallam, Solicitors Edward Bayly Doe, General printer in premises behind (1887–1892) |
| 1897–1899 | Danish Dairy Co. Thomas Mallam & Co. Solicitors Joseph Vincent, Printer (latterly the Vincent-Baxter Press) in premises behind (1891–1968) |
| 1900–1917 | Goodwin, Foster &
Brown Ltd (alias Meadowsweet Dairy Co) Tea dealers Thomas Mallam & Co. Solicitors |
| 1918–1920 | Thomas Mallam & Co. Solicitors |
| 1921–1971 | Kendall & Sons Ltd Umbrella makers Thomas Mallam & Co. (later Thomas Mallam Grimsdale & Co.) Solicitors |
| 1973–1980+ | Alfred Marks Bureau Thomas Mallam, Grimsdale & Co. Solicitors & Commissioners for Oaths |
| By 1993–1996 | Oxford Campus Stores Thomas Mallam, Solicitors |
| By 1998–present | Bonjour Sandwich Shop Herbert Mallam Gowers, Solicitors Rebranded HMG Law in 2007 |