No. 14: Part of St John's College
No. 14 St Giles was built in about 1800. It is a Grade II listed building (ref. 1485/528), originally owned by Balliol College.
For over thirty years it was the home of Alderman Richard Spiers, Mayor of Oxford in 1853/4.
Ruskin College started life here in 1899, moving to its present site in Walton Street in 1903.
The house was taken over as accommodation for St John's College in 2000
At the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, the former house on this site was occupied by Mrs Whalley, and its frontage is recorded as 8 yards and 1 foot.
Richard James Spiers wrote in his record book that on 19 October 1813 Sir Francis Burdett Bart resided at 14 St Giles, and that on 6 January 1842 he himself "took possession of 14 St Giles', sleeping there for 1st time". The 1851 census shows Spiers living in this house with his wife Elizabeth, five young children, and three house servants. He is described as a Town Councillor, and a manufacturer of fancy goods & china employing 28 persons and two apprentices: his main shop was at 102 High Street.
In 1882 14 St Giles' was occupied by Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844–1891), who had accompanied Charles Darwin on the Challenger, the Linacre Professor of Zoology from 1881 until his death.
| Occupants of 14 St Giles' Street listed in censuses and directories | |
| Pre-1820 | Thomas Perry |
| Richard Buckingham Mrs Alice Buckingham, widow |
|
| 1820 | Sir Edward Hitchings |
| 1833 | Lydia Sirman |
| 1842–74 | Alderman Richard James Spiers, J.P. |
| 1880 | Thomas Hill Green Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College |
| 1882–7 | Professor Henry Nottidge Moseley |
| 1890–6 | George John Wilson Physician |
| 1900–3 | Ruskin Hall |
| 1905–6 | Miss Frost |
| 1907–29 | Hugh Edward Egerton Beit Professor of Colonial History & Fellow of All Souls College (Mrs Egerton 1928–9) |
| 1930–2 | Arthur W. Allen |
| 1939 | St Giles Galleries Ltd Furnishings & Decorations |
| 1941–7 | Ernest Henry Tipping Auctioneer, Land & Estate agent & Surveyor Phaidon Press (1947) |
| 1949–64 | Lofts & Warner (later Strutt & Parker Lofts & Warner) Chartered Land agents, surveyors, auctioneers |
| 1968–1980+ | H.J. Ridge & Partners Electrical consulting engineers |
| 1980s/90s | ? |
| 2000–present | Student accommodation for St John's College |