Carfax
Carfax is the ancient heart of Oxford: its name is derived from Quadrifurcus, where the four road from the four city gates meet.
Straight ahead is the thirteenth-century church tower of the former St Martin's Church, the main part of which was rebuilt in 1820 and then demolished in 1896 in order to widen the street. On the left is Boffin's Bakery (described as new in the Oxford Chronicle for 11 October 1884 and now replaced by the Abbey National Building).
Below The Carfax Conduit, which was relocated to Nuneham Courtenay in 1787. This picture was painted by Percy Roberts in about 1850.
In 1616 it was agreed that a grant should be passed authorizing the University to open the streets to bring water to Carfax in lead pipes and to build a conduit "to be bewtified and adorned as an ornament of the citty with three several cocks fayerly set out to run water three several ways", and that the City would allow as much space as could be spared at Carfax, for which a fee of a shilling a year would be paid.
This stone water conduit stood at Carfax from 1610 to 1789, when the road was widened for coach traffic. It was removed and given to Lord Harcourt, who set it up in Nuneham Park, which now belongs to the University of Oxford.
The letters "ON" can be seen repeated around the conduit: these are the initials of Otho Nicholson, a wealthy graduate of Christ Church, who both had the idea and paid for the conduit, which provided water from a cistern on Hinksey Hill via an underground lead pipe. The upper part of the conduit provided water for various colleges, and the lower part for the city. On "extraordinary days of rejoycing", such as the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, wine was poured into the conduit.
The following account was written soon after its removal to Nuneham Courtenay:
The original situation of this piece of antiquity is well known to have been in the centre of the principal street in Oxford; and, probably, from its situation in the middle of four ways, or quatre voiz (in old French) it obtained the vulgar appellation of Carfax; or, perhaps, with as much probability, from Carrefour, the place where several streets meet.
The decayed state of this building, and its inconvenient situation, induced the University very lately to take it down, and judiciously to place it in hands, where it might remain a gratification to the curious, and a pleasing monument of antiquity. The noble Earl has caused some Latin and English lines to be inscribed on this building, on its being placed in his ground; the latter of which run as follows:
This building called Carfax,
Erected for a Conduit at Oxford,
By Otho Nicholson,
In the year of our Lord MDCX,
And taken down in the year MDCCLXXXVII,
To enlarge the High Street,
Was presented by the University
To George Simon, Earl Harcourt,
Who caused it to be placed here.