Oxford Street
In the parish of St. Anne, Nos. 1–103 (odd)
Oxford Street lay within the Portland estate.
Nos. 105–125 (odd) lay within the Pulteney
estate and this section is described on page 290.
The part of Oxford Street discussed here
probably remained undeveloped until the 1670's. (ref. 326)
A few names of ratepayers for houses here can
probably be first identified in the ratebooks in
1674. This part of the street was perhaps half
built by 1685, and in 1691 (the intervening ratebooks being missing) was fully occupied by houses.
The early ratepayers included Joseph Girle, for
four or six houses, 1676–8, Doctor [Nicholas]
Barbon in 1677, and John Meard from 1679.
The tax assessments of the residents in the street
in 1693 were at rather low figures. (ref. 327)
As in many parts of Soho Fields, the rebuilding
which took place in Oxford Street in the 1720's
and 1730's was only partial: it included, however,
the construction of a new court, Goodwin or
Godwin Court. (ref. 33) The building tradesmen who
were active about this time included the bricklayers, Thomas Davis of St. James's, Westminster, (ref. 328) and Thomas Lucas of St. Giles in the
Fields; (ref. 329) the carpenters, Samuel Cotterell of St.
Anne's, (ref. 330) Francis Hatt of St. Mary's, Newington Butts, (ref. 331) John Hoff of St. Anne's, (ref. 332) John
Jackson of St. Anne's, (ref. 333) Richard Richardson of
St. Andrew's, Holborn, (ref. 334) John Saville of St.
Anne's (ref. 335) and Francis Tredgold of St. Marylebone; (ref. 336) and the glazier, William Bignell
of St. Anne's. (ref. 337) Of these, Hoff, Jackson and
Tredgold took building leases (for sixty-five
years) from the Portland family in 1733–4, (ref. 21)
while the others had sub-leases or assignments
from other lessees of the Portlands. Other building tradesmen and builders' merchants occur as
parties to leases or mortgages and were probably
involved in the rebuildings. (fn. a)
Rocque's map published in 1746 (Plate 4)
shows five courts or yards opening off this part of
Oxford Street, and Allen's Court on the Pulteney estate: unlike the courts west of Wardour
Street, in St. James's, none of these in St. Anne's
parish now survives.
Tallis's street view of 1838–40 shows this part
of the street lined with modest buildings, mostly
single-fronted houses of three or four storeys,
generally two windows wide. All had shop fronts.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century the
businesses carried on here were very diversified,
without any predominant trade. All but a few of
the houses shown by Tallis have now been
replaced, some by single-fronted buildings of midVictorian date, and others by larger premises of
later date combining several sites.
No. 43 is shown by Tallis as a three-storeyed
house, but a floor has been added. The front,
two windows wide, is plainly finished in stucco,
with a storey bandcourse and a narrow cornice at
second-floor level.
Nos. 45–49 (odd) are three mid-Victorian
houses of uniform design, each four storeys high
and three windows wide. The brick and stonedressed fronts combine Gothic and Renaissance
motifs, such as the stilted segmental arches of the
first-floor windows, and the pedimented dormers
of the middle house, which projects from its
neighbours.
No. 51 has a stucco-faced front, four storeys
high and two windows wide, the openings being
dressed with architraves and cornices, as shown
by Tallis.
No. 53, formerly the Shamrock and before that
the Primrose public house, has a four-storeyed
front of red brick and stone, floridly detailed and
crowned with a gable. It was probably built c.
1890 (despite the date 1900 on the front) to a
design by the architect Edward Clark. (ref. 350)
No. 61, formerly the Old Queen's Head
public house, is a stone-faced building dated 1880,
eclectic Renaissance in style, its chief feature being
the curious truncated cupola above the angle
turret.