No. 36: “Infinite Ideas”
Nos. 36 is the leftt-hand house of a block of three houses desiged and built by Daniel Evans in 1828/9. The three houses (34, 35, and 36 St Giles' Street) are jointly Grade II listed (ref. 1485/507).
The block is nine bays wide and three storeys high, with attics and basements. All three houses were sold by Exeter College to First Church of Christ, Scientist, Oxford in 1933
No. 36 became the Christian Science Reading Room in 1932.
No. 36 was sold with vacant possession and D1 planning consent in 2004.
The church behind remains: it is numbered 36A and now includes the reading room
The Oxford builder Daniel Evans built this house and its two adjoining neighbours in 1829 on a large plot of land leased for 99 years from the Oxford surgeon John Bull. Evans let this house out to private tenants.
This building seems to have been used by John Cross as a Boys' School, according to the Post Office Directory of 1841.
At the time of the 1841 census No. 36 was occupied by Caroline Dupins (aged c.70), Mary Dupins (aged c. 60), and their four servants. In1851 it was occupied by Mrs Mary Ann Crouch, a widow of 70 described as a fundholder, and her 41-year-old daughter, Miss Mary Ann Hancock, plus a cook and a housemaid. They were both still in the house ten years later, when they also had a resident groom.
In 1881 the house was occupied by Edward T. Turner, the Vice-Principal of Brasenose College, and his wife and four servants: he lived here for 41 years.
In 1928 No. 36 ceased to be a family home and was converted into a hostel for Exeter College.
In 1932 First Church of Christ, Scientist, Oxford moved into No. 36, and the following year they purchased the group of three houses at 34–36 St Giles' from Exeter College. They used No. 36 as their Reading Room, and built their church in the back garden of Nos. 35 and 36. In 2003/4 a new Reading Room was built in the grounds of the church, and No. 36 was sold.
| Occupants of 36 St Giles' Street listed in censuses and directories | |
| 1841 | John Cross Boys' School |
| 1841–6 | Rev. Richard Michell |
| 1852–66 | Mrs Mary A. Crouch |
| 1867–71 | Miss Hancock |
| 1875–1916 | Rev Edward Tindal Turner Fellow of Brasenose University Registrar to 1896 Mrs Turner (1912–16) |
| 1918–28 | Henry Le Blanc Lightfoot Bursar of Corpus Christi College Mrs Le Blanc Lightfoot (1926–8) |
| 1929–32 | Exeter College Hostel |
| 1932–2003 | Christian Science Reading Room |
| Since 2004 | Infinite Ideas (with Mogford Ltd upstairs) |