130: White Stuff
No. 130 has one of the oldest fronts in the street, dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The extra floor in behind was added in the seventeenth century and has since been altered.
It can be seen on the right of the drawing below as it was in 1834, when it was Carter’s Fish shop. There is a passage on the left-hand side of the shop leading to Kemp Hall behind, and this was formerly known as Carter’s Passage.
No. 130 has one of the oldest fronts in the street, dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The extra floor in behind was added in the seventeenth century and has since been altered.
It can be seen on the right of the drawing below as it was in 1834, when it was Carter’s Fish shop. There is a passage on the left-hand side of the shop leading to Kemp Hall behind, and this was formerly known as Carter’s Passage.
No. 130 was condemned in 1929, but the front was preserved and a new building made at the back; the latter, however, was damaged by fire within a few months. It is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/344) owned by the city council until December 2001, when it was put up for sale.
No. 130 was owned from about 1600 by William Boswell, a mercer who became Mayor in 1622 and an Alderman in 1627. In 1637 Boswell built a fine new house for himself (Kemp Hall) in the long narrow back garden of No. 130, but died the next year, leaving both shop and house to his son, Dr William Boswell, DCL. When the latter died in 1678 it passed to his nephew, a third William Boswell, who in 1689 sold No. 130 to Thomas Reeve, tobacco pipe maker. He in turn left it to the City in 1697 for the benefit of poor widows.
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 130 was then in the occupation of a Mr Cosier (patently not a poor widow), and its frontage measured 8 yards 2 feet 10 inches.
The Carter family had a fish shop here for many years. A John Carter was already paying rent in All Saints parish in 1818, and in 1835 his yearly rent was 6/-. In 1826 Mrs K. Carter, the widow of Mr W. Carter, fishmonger died here.
The 1851 census shows John Carter and his wife Lydia living over the shop with their two sons (another John, also a fishmonger, and Charles, a college servant) and three daughters, Lydia, Lucy, and Emily. It still belonged to Reeves’ Charity, and was then let out at a rack rental of £60. But by the time of the 1861 census Carter was dead, and his wife was running the fish shop; she was still living over the shop thirty years in 1881 (when she was a widow of 79) with her two spinster daughters, Lydia (56) and Emily (33), who are also listed as fishmongers. Emily still lived there alone with one servant in 1901.
When the fishmongers (who latterly also sold game) moved out in 1929, the tobacconists from next door moved in.
Picture on English Heritage site of 126–130 High Street in 1892
| Occupiers of 130 High Street | |
| By 1818 to 1929 | Carter,
Fishmonger John Carter by 1839 to at least 1853 Mrs Carter (also a Brushmaker) from before 1861 to 1867 George Carter from 1869 to 1871 Miss Lydia Carter from 1872 to 1929 |
| 1930–1956 | Evans
& Evans Tobacconist Fribourg & Treyer Cigar importers & cigarette manufacturers |
| 1962–1968 | Vacant |
| 1970–1976+ | North
of England Building Society/Central Business Agency & Central Estates Fribourg & Treyer Cigar importers and tobacconists Studio Edmark, Photographers and dental surgery |
| 1980s | ? |
| By 1996–2003 | Oxford Campus Stores |
| 2003- | White Stuff |