132: Hotel Chocolat
No. 132 dates from the fifteenth century, but has been much altered. On the east side of the house in the passage-way is some original fifteenth-century studding with the remains of two original timber doorways, one with roses on the lintel. It is Grade II listed together with the Chequers Inn behind (ref. 1485/346).
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. No. 132 was then in the occupation of a Mr Goddard, and its frontage measured 8 yards 0 feet 7 inches. This would be Howell Goddard, who announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 20 June 1776 that he had given up the Chequers pub behind but would continue his business here as a hatter, hosier, and haberdasher.
The 1851 census shows Henry Hatch, the boot and shoe maker here, living over the shop with his wife and four children, plus two of his shop assistants and a general servant. He is described as the employer of five people.
Similarly Howell Goddard Tagart was living over the shop at the time of the 1881 census together with his wife, four children, his older sister, his younger brother (who was a banker’s clerk), plus a nurse maid and a general servant aged 13.
John Coombs, a cook with ten children, went bankrupt at this shop (see Jackson's Oxford Journal of 10 March 1894).
This shop was the Belfast Linen Warehouse from 1921 to 1967. The advertisement on the left dates from the 1950s.
| Occupiers of 132 High Street | |
| 1839 | H.G.
Tagart Boot & shoe maker |
| By 1846–1851 | Henry
Hatch Boot & shoe maker |
| Before 1866–1887 | Howell Goddard Tagart (later Tagart & Son) Boot & shoe makers |
| 1889–1894 | John Coombs Cook shop & dining rooms |
| 1895–1908 | May’s Drug Stores Ltd |
| 1909–1915 | Oxford Drug Co Ltd |
| 1921–1967 | Belfast Linen Warehouse |
| 1970–2006 | Bristol & West Building Society (later PLC) |
| 2006–2008 | Britannia Building Society |
| 2009–present | Hotel Chocolat |