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Grade II Listed Building: IoE Number 245550 (Nos. 6 & 7 listed jointly). The whole front appears to be an eighteenth-century remodelling of a seventeenth-century house. The rubble wall of c.1700 to the rear of No. 7 is listed separately: IoE Number 245551. Owned by Merton College.

This pair of houses has been one large house since the eighteenth century, and hence No. 8 has no front door.

The above extract from the 1876 OS map shows that Nos. 6 and 7 were then known as the Cardinal’s Hat, a name which survived into the twentieth century. The large back garden of this house also extended eastwards behind Nos. 2–5 Holywell Street, and was reached via the gateway to the west.

The Revd Charles Pourtales Golightly lived alone in this large house for at least forty years in the nineteenth century. A good description is given of the interior of the house in the following advertisement inserted by J. R. Mallam & Son in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 10 November 1883, probably soon after Golightly (who died in 1885) had moved out:

No. 6 HOLYWELL STREET, OXFORD.
THE LEASE of this commodious and desirable PRIVATE RESIDENCE to be sold.
THE HOUSE contains: —
IN THE BASEMENT — Extensive cellarage.
ON THE GROUND FLOOR. — Square pannelled entrance hall, stud, dining room, drawing room, butler’s pantry, w.c., servants’ hall, kitchen, and offices.
ON THE FIRST FLOOR — Library with folding doors, three bed rooms, two dressing rooms, and w.c.
ON THE SECOND FLOOR — Four convenient attics.
There is a large and productive walled Garden; also a small Garden, a Yard with carriage entrance from the street, and Buildings that have been and are easily re-convertable into a coach house and three-stalled stable.
(The Greenhouses, Forcing Pits, &c., are Tenant’s Fixtures, and should be taken to as such.)
The Property is held under Merton College, Oxford, for a term expiring in April, 1901. Ground Rent, £6 4s. Land Tax, £1 2s 6d.
There are at present held and occupied with the above Premises two large Vegetable Gardens, situated immediately at the back of and communicating with the same, which are held by a lease expiring in March, 1887, at a yearly rent of £15.
The Purchaser of the Premises shall have the option of taking these Gardens under the present Agreement.
Further particulars concerning price of Lease, &c., on application.
To a suitable Tenant the House might be Let at a yearly rental under an ordinary Agreement for the term of 17 years.

In March 1915, the Cardinal’s Hat, then the property of New College, was let out to acommodate 16 Belgian refugees. The Oxford Journal Illustrated of 17 March 1915 shows photographs of the exterior, one of the bedrooms, and the smoke-room.