MODERN OXFORD

Introduction, p. 181. Development of the City, p. 188. Economic History, p. 208. City Government, p. 224 (Unreformed Corporation, p. 224; Corporation 1835–89, p. 227; Paving Commissioners and Local Board of Health, p. 232; Board of Guardians, p. 234; Public Health in the 19th century, p. 236; City Government 1889–1939, p. 240; City Government since 1939, p. 244; City and University, p. 245; Parliamentary Representation, p. 248). Religious Life, p. 254.

With the Paving Commission of 1771 Oxford's modern history began. The commission's activities radically transformed the city's appearance, and its creation, together with that of the Board of Guardians in the same year, marked a shift of power away from the old corporation towards bodies on which the city and university were represented evenly, and which were financed satisfactorily out of rates. The old corporation, abolished in 1835, was succeeded by another with little power, and the confusion of authorities was not finally resolved until 1889 when the corporation was granted a full range of local governmental powers. An even greater turning-point in the development of modern Oxford was the rapid growth of the motor industry at Cowley in the 1920s. Until then, despite the coming of the canal and railway, Oxford remained a fairly small, inward-looking community, little touched by the industrial revolution, instinctively averse to change, heavily dependent upon the university for both fortune and fame. In the space of a generation Oxford was transformed into one of the major industrial cities of southern England, its population swollen by immigration, its suburbs sprawling beyond extended boundaries; its governors, while striving to preserve the jewel at its centre, were confronted by administrative and social problems typical of a new town.

In 1772 the city's population was estimated to be c. 9,500 and the university's c. 3,000; (fn. 1) the number of matriculations, however, (fn. 2) and a calculation that there were only c. 250 resident M.A.s (fn. 3) suggest that the university population was nearer 1,500. The combined population was probably well below 11,000, and by 1801 it was still below 12,000. Between 1811 and 1831 it grew by 50 per cent (see Table X), keeping pace with the rapid urban expansion throughout the country. Oxford lacked the industrial base to maintain such growth, however, and after 1831 the rise in population, although above the national average, fell behind that of larger towns, despite the inclusion of St. Clement's parish within the municipal boundary in 1836, which added c. 2,000 to the population. In the decade 1851–61 there was a sharp fall in the city's growth-rate even allowing for the fact that the 1861 census was taken during a university vacation. The university's growth did not keep pace with the city's; in 1801 the university constituted about a tenth of the total population, but by 1861 only 5 or 6 per cent. Its recovery in the later 19th century (fn. 4) encouraged steady growth in the city's population, but after 1881 the rate slowed once more.

The rate of growth in the 19th century varied greatly from one area of the city to another: several parishes, mainly central, lost population steadily from 1821, while the outer parishes, notably St. Ebbe's (until 1861), St. Thomas's, St. Clement's, and St. Giles's, provided virtually all the city's growth. (fn. 5) Moreover Oxford was the dominant economic influence over a well-populated area larger than the city's boundaries, a fact partly recognized by boundary extensions of 1889 and later. In the Oxford Registration District, which comprised the city's ancient parishes except for St. Giles's and St. John's, there was constant loss of population by net migration, reaching 3,400 in the 1880s. (See Table XI.) In the St. Clement's Registration Sub-district, which contained St. Giles's, St. John's, and most of the areas later added to Oxford, there was regular gain by migration, rising almost to 5,000 in the 1870s. The only decade in which there was a loss by migration from both registration areas combined was the 1850s (a net loss of 1,800), although in the 1880s the gain was negligible.

Source: Census, 1801–1971. Figures include Grandpont tithing but exclude Littlemore.

a Boundary change, 1837. Fig. is that given for the extended city in 1841 by Census, 1851.

b Univ. on vacation at time of census.

c Parl. boundary extended, 1868.

d Co. boro. boundary extended, 1929.

e Estimated in Census, 1951.

f Boundary extended, 1957.

Source: Census, 1851–1911. The St. Clement's Registration Sub-district included St. Clement's, St. Giles's, St. John's, Headington, Cowley, Iffley, Marston, and a number of other outlying parishes.

The widespread distress accompanying the Napoleonic Wars had repercussions in Oxford. Food, money, and coal, bought with large sums subscribed by the city and university, were given or sold cheaply to the poor, but nevertheless violence flared sporadically because of high food prices. (fn. 6) In 1800 a troop of horse was sent to Oxford from Reading, and the local militia was called out after countrymen had been intimidated in the market, and the mob had threatened to attack the town hall and colleges; other poor townsmen terrorized farmers in neighbouring villages, forcing them to promise to sell their corn cheaply. (fn. 7) In 1814 J. I. Lockhart, the city's M.P., was forced to enter the city armed after voting against the import of corn. (fn. 8) With the return of peace Oxford settled back to a more somnolent state, broken only rarely by such outbursts as the arrest, and subsequent rescue in Oxford, of those accused of the riots connected with the inclosure of Otmoor in 1830. (fn. 9) In 1856 many townsmen, disappointed of an official celebration on the ending of the Crimean War, lit bonfires in the streets; one at Carfax aparently destroyed the city stocks. (fn. 10) The last major riots occurred in 1867, in protest at an increase in the price of bread, and in the wake of similar riots in the West Country. A detachment of Guards was sent from Windsor, and peace restored by a reduction in bread prices. (fn. 11)

Throughout the 19th century, while there was an élite of prosperous townsmen, the community was characterized by small tradesmen, craftsmen, and college servants, without any great concentrations of labour. There was a wide gap between rich and poor, symbolized perhaps in St. Aldate's where Christ Church towered over rows and courts of squalid and insanitary cottages; in such areas disease was rife, and the struggle to control cholera occupies a central place in Oxford's 19th-century history. (fn. 12) The discontinuity of demand for goods and services from a university that was on vacation for six months of the year caused chronic underemployment. The notorious rowdiness and corruption of parliamentary elections in Oxford owed much to the impartial demands of those for whom such events brought much-needed income: 'if you do not employ me, I shall go to the other side'. (fn. 13) Although Oxford was reckoned to have few families who were permanently destitute, (fn. 14) appeal funds and public works programmes set up almost every year suggest that a large section of the population was vulnerable in times of high prices or bad weather. It was claimed in 1794 that more than 4,000 people had been regularly supplied with bread for 11 weeks, and in 1886 300 men were set to work repairing roads and bridges during a severe winter. (fn. 15)

The supplementation of the work of the Poor Law Guardians by effective charitable organizations (fn. 16) meant that, although there was distress, the worst crises were avoided. Individual generosity by citizens and members of the university, combined with the paternal nature of most employment in Oxford, acted as stabilizing factors in periods of national political agitation. The relationship of employed and employer was usually deferential: it was noted in 1908 that underpaid clothing workers 'seemed even proud to show that they could do so much for so small a return'. (fn. 17) Before the rise of the motor industry there was an acceptance of a traditional job hierarchy: 'When I was a boy, if a man had a job in the gasworks, the printing press, or on the railways, he stayed there ... Of course there was the college servants, but they wouldn't look at the likes of us'. (fn. 18) Stability may have been aided by the close involvement of small tradesmen, craftsmen, and college servants in the development of the city's working-class housing in the early 19th century; (fn. 19) such men lived in the areas which they helped to develop, and although many of them, other than college servants, might claim to be politically radical they were models of property-owning respectability.

The city's radical leaders could not successfully challenge the monopoly of power exercised by the city's Liberals and Conservatives. A chartist meeting held by John Towle in 1842 attracted an attendance of 200, but few came to the next meeting. (fn. 20) In 1848 it was claimed that a chartist petition organized by J. J. Faulkner contained 900 names, (fn. 21) and a well-attended meeting at the town hall overwhelmingly supported the aims of the Reform Movement. (fn. 22) The hard core of support for the movement, however, does not seem to have been large and although Faulkner and other 'chartist councillors' caused an uproar by refusing to stand for the loyal toast at the mayor's dinner (fn. 23) they were unable to make significant impact. There was little in Oxford on which discontent might effectively be focussed; the city's wealthiest men were not great exploiters of labour, the city council achieved little for good or ill, and the Local Board of Health operated quietly and without obvious injustice. Antagonism towards the university dissipated itself in occasional townand-gown riots, which persisted, irregularly, into the 20th century. (fn. 24)

The wealthy men of Oxford were brewers, bankers, lawyers, newspaper proprietors, and clothiers. It was reported in 1780 that Alderman John Treacher, a brewer, had died worth £40,000, (fn. 25) and brewing was the foundation of other family fortunes, notably those of the Tawneys, (fn. 26) Morrells, and Halls. The banks that flourished from the late 18th century did so on the firm security of university business, which brought prosperity to the families of Lock, Parsons, and Thomson. William Jackson of the Oxford Journal was also a banker, and had other business interests and investments. (fn. 27) Lawyers flourished in a university and county town, none more so than Thomas Walker, town clerk from 1756 to 1795, and William Elias Taunton, town clerk from 1795 to 1825. (fn. 28) The wealthier citizens often lived out of town and acquired country estates. Sir Joseph Lock, (fn. 29) William Jackson, and the Morrells bought estates in Headington; Taunton built both Grandpont House at Folly Bridge and Freeland Lodge, Eynsham; the brewer A. W. Hall, M.P. lived at Barton Abbey; (fn. 30) the Parsons and Thomson families, partners in the Old Bank, acquired Elsfield Manor and Woodperry respectively in the late 19th century. (fn. 31)

Oxford was not ruled, however, by a small absentee élite, for in a city where, before 1914, the only large-scale employer was the university press, the economic basis did not exist for an exclusive concentration of power in the hands of one or two people. The only family that came near to exercising prolonged influence in the city was the Morrell family from Wallingford, (fn. 32) which rose to prominence in Oxford in the mid 18th century. James Morrell (1739–1807), a partner of Thomas Walker, was involved in the management of parliamentary elections for both the Churchill and Bertie candidates; he was the university solicitor and also occasionally represented the city. In his offices with the university and as steward of St. John's College he was followed by his son, grandson, and great grandson. His son Baker (1779–1854) married the daughter of the president of Trinity College, and Robert, probably a nephew, was an attorney and county treasurer in 1844, (fn. 33) and may have been a partner in the firm of Cox, Morrell and Co., bankers. (fn. 34) Baker Morrell's son Frederick Joseph (1811–83) held the additional offices of clerk to the Paving Commission and Local Board of Health, and was a Conservative councillor from 1866–9. His son, Frederick Parker, mayor in 1899, married the daughter of the president of St. John's College; Philip, son of F. P. Morrell, was Liberal M.P. for South Oxfordshire, and married Ottoline, sister of William Cavendish-Bentinck, duke of Portland (d. 1943), with whom he entertained many eminent writers at Garsington Manor. (fn. 35) The Morrells accumulated landed property from the 18th century, and held estates widely over the county. Another branch of the family descended from Mark Morrell (1737–87), James's brother. Mark and his son, James, entered brewing in the late 18th century as partners of the Tawneys (fn. 36) to whom they were related by marriage. James (d. 1855) was living in Headington Hill Hall by 1831, (fn. 37) and the family retained the estate until it was sold to the city in 1953. (fn. 38) His son James (1810–63), sheriff of the county in 1853, (fn. 39) was an open-handed and popular local figure; his brewery, known as the Lion Brewery, remained in the family's ownership in 1978.

Concentration of wealth and office on such a scale in one family was unusual in Oxford. The Morrells were not politically ambitious, and although perhaps distinguished from their fellow-citizens by their familiar contacts with leading members of the university they were never wholly exclusive. The wealth of the city was spread widely enough over the middle classes to dampen feelings of resentment against such men. A list of the major shareholders in the proposed railway to Oxford in 1836 included Oxford bankers, tailors, grocers, wine merchants, solicitors, cooks, booksellers, and ironmongers. (fn. 40) Nor was the city's 'respectability' in the 19th century rigidly Conservative, as it was, for example, in Exeter. (fn. 41) Certainly the brewers, bankers, and lawyers were predominantly Conservative, but many prominent and widely respected tradesmen were Liberals. For much of the 19th century the city was virtually controlled by the Liberals, dominant on the council and the Local Board of Health, prominent on the Board of Guardians. The 'respectability' cut across party lines; although no dissenter became an alderman for almost twenty years after municipal reform they were readily accepted thereafter.

As a social centre Oxford never matched resorts like Bath or Cheltenham. The university attracted increasing numbers of tourists, few as ignorant as Macaulay's travelling companion, who, after spending half an hour in Oxford, pronounced 'That was a pretty town enough. Pray, sir, what is it called?'. (fn. 42) The university, however, provided few social events in which outsiders might partake, and the city had no reputation for banquets, balls, or festivals; in the 18th century the great social event was the Port Meadow races, (fn. 43) but fashionable interest in the races declined in the 19th century. A list compiled c. 1820 of the local nobility and gentry who regularly came into Oxford in style was not particularly impressive, and included many members of the university. (fn. 44) There were occasions of great public excitement and interest, such as public executions, and ascents by hot-air balloons. James Sadler (1753–1828), the first English balloonist, son of a High Street confectioner, made several ascents from Oxford in 1784 and 1785, so impressing the onlookers that George Spencer, marquis of Blandford could not be restrained from buying a balloon himself. (fn. 45) Generally, however, Oxford's claim to be 'always a century behind other towns' (fn. 46) was not an inducement to the fashionable.

Royal visits in the late 18th and earlier 19th centuries were splendid ceremonial occasions, following the pattern set in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1785 and 1786 George III and Queen Charlotte visited Oxford from Nuneham Courtenay, home of the Harcourt family, and the mayor, John Treacher, and senior alderman, Richard Tawney, were knighted. (fn. 47) In 1799 Frederick, duke of York, devoted the first day of his visit mainly to the university, but a ball in the evening in the town hall was attended by a 'splendid assemblage' of nobility and gentry; the next day he received the freedom of the city and reviewed the Oxford Loyal Volunteers on Port Meadow. (fn. 48) The victory over Napoleon in 1814 was celebrated by a dinner followed by music and dancing for over 4,000 poor people in Radcliffe Square, and by one of the most splendid royal visits the city had seen. The Prince Regent, accompanied by Alexander I of Russia, Frederick William III of Prussia, Prince Metternich, Marshal Blücher, and other distinguished European soldiers and statesmen, visited the university, but on the afternoon of their second day they came to the town hall, where the town clerk, W. E. Taunton, and mayor, Joseph Lock, were knighted, and the honorary freedom of the city conferred on several of the visitors. (fn. 49) Earlier foreign visitors included Frederick, prince of Würtemburg, in 1797 and the exiled Louis XVIII of France in 1808: both stayed at the Star. (fn. 50) Queen Adelaide, accompanied by the duke of Wellington, stayed at the Angel in 1835; there was no official reception, but the mayor called on the queen and, according to a story circulating in the university, (fn. 51) shook her hand firmly instead of kissing it.

Queen Victoria paid the first of several visits to Oxford in 1832, while still a princess. (fn. 52) In 1841 she and Prince Albert came to Oxford during a stay at Nuneham Courtenay, and in 1860 she paid a private visit to Edward, prince of Wales, who was then spending a year at Christ Church as an undergraduate, living in Frewin Hall. (fn. 53) The Prince of Wales himself opened the new town hall in 1897. (fn. 54)

Social contact between town and gown was for a long time restricted to the most prominent townsmen. A visit by James Woodforde, fellow of New College, to take tea with a group of townspeople in 1775 was an unusual event in his round of social activities. (fn. 55) Experience of co-operation on the city's governing bodies brought town and gown closer together, (fn. 56) but there were frequently deep social divisions, exacerbated by arrogance. The city's suburban growth provoked a suggestion that 'pastry-cooks who had made fortunes by cheating members of the university should retire to the dunghills on which they were spawned . . . and not pollute the magnificent entrances to the most beautiful of cities in the kingdom'. (fn. 57) Such attitudes provoked the predictable response that the heads of houses were 'a set of vagabonds, living on the fat of the land'. (fn. 58) As late as the 1870s it was reckoned to be impossible for outsiders to get a footing in university society (fn. 59) and it was only as an increasing number of academic families settled in the suburbs of North Oxford that attitudes began to change, but then only slowly. An article of 1892 in a university magazine, caricaturing leading townsmen as Aldermen Buggins and Muggins, dropping aitches with Dickensian liberality, (fn. 60) presumably reflected the acceptable attitudes of the day.

Oxford's industrialization led to rapid population growth in the 1920s and 1930s. The city's boundaries were extended in 1929; between 1921 and 1931 the population of the whole area of the extended city grew by 20 per cent. Between 1931 and 1951 (see Table X), the population increased by a further 23 per cent, or 34 per cent if those students are included who were on vacation at the time of the 1951 census, making Oxford one of the larger urban areas of southern England. The city's growth was matched by that of the university which in 1951 comprised c. 9 per cent of the total population. (fn. 61) Thereafter the city's rate of growth slowed but the university's expansion continued. The adjusted total for 1951 means that in the following decade the population of the city as a whole fell by c. 1,500, and Oxford's total population was almost static between 1961 and 1971, in which year the university comprised about a tenth of the population.

Migration was the decisive factor in the rapid expansion of the 1920s. (fn. 62) The calculations made in the census of 1931 show that to be true for the whole area within the new boundary of 1929. In the 1920s Oxford made a net gain of more than 11,000 by migration and the city continued to gain until the 1950s. The exclusion of students in the 1951 census meant that an apparent gain by migration of c. 3,000 by 1961 in reality hid a net loss by migration of c. 6,000. The loss was probably accounted for largely by the movement out to the surrounding villages of people who continued to work in Oxford. (fn. 63) Despite a small rise in the city's total population between 1961 and 1971 there was a loss by net migration of c. 3,000.

A study made in 1937 of immigration into Oxford (fn. 64) revealed that since 1921 c. 10,300 insured workers had moved into the area. In 1936 35 per cent of the total insured population of the city, and 43 per cent of male insured workers above the age of 21, were immigrants; almost half the workforce in the motor industry were immigrants. The new industry brought in its wake a great demand for goods and services, which itself brought more people to the city: more than half those working in the bus service, for example, came from outside Oxford. In 1936 43 per cent of immigrants came from within 50 miles of Oxford, 34 per cent from within 50–100 miles, and 23 per cent from above 100 miles. More than a third came from the relatively prosperous south-west, and comparatively few from the depressed areas of the north. Economic distress, however, did account for the large number of workers who took the familiar route to Oxford from South Wales. (fn. 65)

The rapid growth of the motor industry and the influx of immigrants brought a change of attitudes and values. High wages were readily available in Oxford for the first time, and by 1936 Oxford was, with Coventry and Luton, the most prosperous town in the United Kingdom. (fn. 66) The city's traditional job-hierarchy was overturned; the immigrants also brought with them more aggressive attitudes towards their employers, and there was frequently antipathy towards them on the part of local people. Many of the habitual difficulties of immigrants, however, such as isolation and the tendency to form ghettos, did not present lasting problems, largely because so many were young and willing to mix socially. (fn. 67) One of the greatest problems was the pressure of population growth upon the city's housing resources at a time when the older areas were in need of redevelopment; the crisis produced tensions that were previously unknown in Oxford. The council estate at Cutteslowe became notorious in 1934 when the developers of an adjoining private estate built walls to prevent the council's tenants from using its roads; it was alleged that the tenants were former Oxford slum-dwellers, although most of the houses were inhabited by newcomers to the city. The council was not able to compel the demolition of the walls until 1959. (fn. 68) Another major problem was that the population, though greatly enlarged, continued to depend upon the same restricted central shopping area, a situation only partly eased by the creation of Cowley Centre in 1965. Shortage of development land within the boundaries encouraged many families to move outside, beyond the reach of reasonable public transport, thus increasing the flow of private cars into the city centre. Traffic problems, with associated controversies over relief roads, have played an unusually prominent part in the city's modern history.

The growth of the motor industry in Oxford was entirely the result of the enterprise of a local man, W. R. Morris, later Viscount Nuffield (d. 1963), (fn. 69) whose vast fortune was dispersed in benefactions to the academic and medical world. The city benefited directly, particularly from gifts to local hospital services. (fn. 70) As a young man Morris quarrelled with the city authorities when he set up a rival and unlicensed bus service in 1913; (fn. 71) thereafter he took little part in civic life, although in 1923 only ill-health prevented him from standing as a Conservative candidate for Oxford. (fn. 72) In 1951 he accepted the honorary freedom of the city, having refused it twice previously. (fn. 73)

The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in 1942 to relieve famine and sickness arising from the war in Europe, grew during the 1940s and 1950s into an international charity, Oxfam. In 1958 it was registered as a non-profit-making company, and in 1962 opened a purpose-built headquarters at no. 274 Banbury Road. In the financial year 1977–8 Oxfam raised c. £7,500,000 which was used to support projects and give emergency relief in 76 countries. (fn. 74)

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY

Between 1771 and 1811 the number of houses in the city increased only from c. 1,700 to c. 2,000, (fn. 75) but the city's appearance was altered greatly by the new and vigorous approach to local improvements of the Paving Commissioners of 1771. (fn. 76) The commission made the first modern attempt at overall planning in the city; with general approbation (fn. 77) the east and north gates, together with Bocardo, were demolished in 1771, (fn. 78) the butchers' shambles in Queen Street and part of the butter bench at Carfax in 1773. (fn. 79) The street-market was brought to an end, replaced by the indoor market opened in 1774. (fn. 80) In October 1771 it was reported that all the protruding inn- and shop-signs had been taken down, and 'put against the houses', (fn. 81) and the city's appearance was gradually transformed by the removal of myriad stalls, pumps, porches, penthouses, spouts, and projections. Carfax conduit was removed in 1787, and the remaining part of the butter bench c. 1822. (fn. 82) The commissioners' removal of encroachments, and the setting-back of property from the street to facilitate road-widening and paving, won the praise of visitors, who complimented the city on its new look, particularly its unaccustomed cleanliness; High Street, its paving completed in 1779 in the new style of large squared blocks with side gutters, (fn. 83) was regarded as equal to the best-paved streets in London. (fn. 84)

The enthusiasm for public improvements alarmed some householders, particularly when the Paving Commission's surveyor, John Gwynn, was observed all over town, measuring and making notes on streets and houses. (fn. 85) Others, however, were for bolder measures, notably Edward Tatham, rector of Lincoln College, who proposed widespread destruction in the city in order to open up elegant vistas and avenues: the churches of St. Michael and St. Mary Magdalen were to be demolished, the city wall and the mound removed from New College garden, and Queen's and New College Lanes turned into 'a large open street'; trees were to remain in the streets only where they concealed the 'enormous irregularity of gothic pinnacles'. (fn. 86) The commissioners, however, kept the destruction of houses to a minimum, demolishing those adjoining the east and north gates, others in Middle Row, south of St. Mary Magdalen church, (fn. 87) a few at the north end of Turl Street in 1785, (fn. 88) and a row in St. Aldate's opposite Christ Church in 1834. (fn. 89) The only large-scale demolition was in St. Clement's, for the rebuilding of Magdalen Bridge and the opening of a new road to Henley (later Iffley Road), both completed in 1778. (fn. 90) The remodelling of the area was completed by the demolition of St. Clement's church in 1830. (fn. 91) The churchyard remained, but was later made into a traffic island. The western approaches to the town had been improved c. 1770 by the cutting of New Road through the castle precincts, from Queen Street to the Botley causeway. (fn. 92) The alterations to the city's approaches were completed by the removal of Friar Bacon's Study in 1779, and the rebuilding of Folly Bridge in 1825. (fn. 93)

The Oxford Canal, opened in 1790, skirted the eastern edge of Port Meadow through what was mostly open country, ending at the New Road wharves. The canal attracted some industrial development, notably the Eagle Ironworks, which moved to Walton Well Road in 1825, (fn. 94) and further wharves were opened off Walton Street and Hayfield Road. The main navigation stream of the Thames was also altered in 1790, no longer passing under Bulstake Bridge, but through Oseney Lock, and in 1883 a new cut was made for the river Cherwell through Christ Church meadow, to ease the flooding below the city. (fn. 95)

There was little space for building in the old city, and, apart from the market and college buildings, most larger institutions of the late 18th century and early 19th were built on the northern fringes. The Radcliffe Infirmary, designed by Stiff Leadbetter, was built at the southern end of the Woodstock road between 1759 and 1770, and the Radcliffe Observatory, just to the north, between 1772 and 1794; both were financed by the trustees of the will of Dr. John Radcliffe. The first architect of the Observatory, 'the finest example of the late classic style . . . in Oxford', (fn. 96) was Henry Keene, but the building is said to owe more to his successor, James Wyatt, who modelled the octagonal central tower on the Tower of the Winds at Athens. (fn. 97) The workhouse for the United Parishes was also built to the north of the city, on the site of the later Wellington Square, in 1772. The castle gaol was rebuilt in 1776 and a new city gaol at Gloucester Green was in use by 1789. A county hall was built in solid, Norman style next to the castle gaol in 1841. (fn. 98) The most important new commercial building was the Canal House, designed by Richard Tawney for the Oxford Canal Company in 1827–9 at the canal basin. The building, of stone and in classical style, later became the master's lodgings of St. Peter's College. (fn. 99) The company's previous offices may have been in Wyaston House, in New Inn Hall Street, built in 1797 and taken over in 1878 to be the rectory-house of St. Peter-le-Bailey; the building survives as the entrance hall and library of St. Peter's College. (fn. 1) A gasworks was erected in 1818 on the north bank of the river Thames, in the Friars district of St. Ebbe's, an area later developed so intensively for housing that major extensions of the works in 1882 had to take place on the south bank of the river opposite. (fn. 2)

The university press was removed from the Clarendon Building to Walton Street in 1830, (fn. 3) and its presence there led to the rapid development of the Jericho district. The Ashmolean Museum and Taylor Institution, designed by C. R. Cockerell, were built in 1841–5 on the site of a number of old houses off St. Giles's Street. (fn. 4) The Ashmolean's classical facade contrasts strongly with the contemporary Martyrs' Memorial, designed by George Gilbert Scott, built in memory of bishops Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley in 1841–3, and based on the 13th-century Eleanor Cross at Waltham (Essex). The memorial was financed by public subscription, and built on the site of the Robin Hood inn and other 17th-century houses to the north of St. Mary Magdalen church. (fn. 5)

A few substantial private houses were built outside the former built-up area in the late 18th century and early 19th. Grandpont House, built c. 1875 for William Elias Taunton, town clerk, is a three-storey house straddling a stream of the Thames on three arches at the south-east corner of Folly Bridge. (fn. 6) East of Magdalen Bridge, in Cowley Place, a three-storey brick house, Cowley House, was built c. 1780 for Dr. Humphrey Sibthorp, professor of Botany; north and south wings were added in the later 19th century and the house later formed the nucleus of St. Hilda's College. (fn. 7) Walton House, a plain two-storey stone villa, was built c. 1826 by Alderman Thomas Ensworth, and later became the original hall of residence of Somerville College. (fn. 8)

In the city centre there was continued refronting in stucco of older buildings, often combined with heightening and addition of canted bays, as at no. 36 High Street, where the late-18th-century front covers a 16th- or 17th-century building. In 1783 the 16th-century Star inn in Cornmarket was completely refronted with a symmetrical facade, (fn. 9) and, although the Star has been demolished, many other examples of refronting survive in Cornmarket Street and High Street. Late-18th-century buildings in stone included the High Street frontage of the market (fn. 10) and nos. 92–3 High Street, the Old Bank, built for the flourishing partnership of William Fletcher and John Parsons; no. 93, of four bays, was built in 1775 on the site of George Hall, and no. 92, of five bays, was added in 1798, but the ground floors were remodelled later. (fn. 11) Some groups of late-18th- and early-19th-century buildings replaced properties demolished during the improvements of the late 18th century, notably those built near the demolished east gate, nos. 58–9 High Street on the north side of the street, and a range on the south, nos. 61–72. At the corner of Rose Lane, in a key position overlooking the new eastern approach to the city, Thomas Roberson, later town clerk, built a large three-storey, ashlar building, later purchased by Dr. John Cooke, president of Corpus Christi College, and in 1859 by Magdalen College, which gave it the name Magdalen Gate House. (fn. 12) Other small groups of buildings of that period survive on the west side of Oriel Street, and at the north-west end of Turl Street. Not all new building was of such quality, however; until c. 1930 the south-east corner of Carfax, one of the most important sites in the city, was occupied by a drab four-storey early-19th-century building of Flemish bond brickwork. (fn. 13)

The greatest concentration of new stone buildings of the period was in St. Giles's Street, mostly built as residences and offices for leading professional men, while some of the most substantial were taken by university professors. On the south-east, only no. 1, a 2½-storey, two-bay house with pedimented doorway survives. In 1846, and probably earlier, it was occupied by a local lawyer, Baker Morrell, whose business successors occupied the building in 1978. On the north-east, nos. 14 and 15 are large stone houses, occupied in 1846 by two leading citizens, R. J. Spiers and F. J. Morrell. The north-west of the street is dominated by a group, nos. 34–8, three- and four-storeyed, with ashlar fronts, some with pedimented doorways and windows, some with cast-iron first-floor balconies. In 1846 their occupants included a builder, two ladies of independent means, a physician, the university registrar, and the university reader in Logic. (fn. 14)

Georgian and Regency terraces, so important a feature of many towns, are thinly represented in Oxford, presumably because of the city's lack of economic growth, and the requirement at that time that dons remain unmarried and resident in college. A few isolated groups survive, notably the late-Georgian stucco terrace at London Place, St. Clement's. St. John's Terrace, nos. 47–53 Woodstock Road, large three-storey brick houses with stone dressings and cast-iron balconies, was built in the early 19th century for prosperous tradesmen; a humbler version was St. Giles's Terrace, nos. 14–36 Woodstock Road. The only major development was Beaumont Street, described as the 'finest street ensemble of Oxford', (fn. 15) laid out for St. John's College from 1820 by Henry Dixon, a local surveyor, who was, perhaps, also the architect. The leases, granted for 40 years from the completion of each house, almost all date from 1824, although there seems still to have been some isolated building in progress in 1837. The houses, generally of three storeys and two or three bays, are ashlar-fronted terraces with rear and side elevations of brick, and some wroughtiron balconies. St. John Street, developed at the same time, is narrower and plainer, and Beaumont Buildings, parallel with St. John Street on the west, are small brick-built terraced houses. Most of the houses were built by speculators, of whom many lived themselves in the new development. The houses in Beaumont Street were occupied by financiers, builders, and prominent tradesmen, St. John Street and Beaumont Buildings by lesser tradesmen and college servants. (fn. 16)

South-West Oxford in 1850

South-East Oxford in 1850

North Oxford in 1850

Many of the same speculators, notably George Kimber, Thomas Wyatt, and John Eveness, were involved in building developments elsewhere in the city. In the early 19th century there was a prolonged period of working-class house building in the parishes of St. Clement, St. Ebbe, St. Giles, St. Mary Magdalen, and St. Thomas, so that between 1811 and 1851 the number of houses in the city, including St. Clement's, more than doubled to 5,100. By far the biggest increase came in the decade 1821–31, when the number increased by c. 42 per cent, slightly easing the problem of overcrowding which had grown in the previous decades. (fn. 17) The building was mainly in the the Friars district of St. Ebbe's, around Gloucester Green, along Walton Street, in Jericho, and in St. Clement's. (fn. 18) Further north, St. Bernard's Road was being developed in 1832 and Observatory Street in 1834. (fn. 19) The development was primarily a response to the city's rapidly increasing population, but also resulted from a shift in population out of the central parishes, where very little new house-building took place, and where extensions by colleges depleted the existing housing stock. (fn. 20) Oxford was unusual in that the movement outwards was by the less well off, leaving 'a ring of suburbs around an upper-class centre'. (fn. 21) Until the development of North Oxford later in the century there was no suitable land available for the building of middle-class housing, and the middle classes remained in the centre or lived outside the city while working-class housing was concentrated in areas that were often low-lying, ill-drained, and subject to flooding. The new houses were two- and three-storey brick cottages, occasionally varied by polychrome brick-work, and most were solidly built although drainage problems quickly became apparent. The terraces contained a variety of house-types of different standards. (fn. 22) Some of the later houses, such as those in Paradise Square begun in 1838, were built for slightly more prosperous residents. (fn. 23) The new estates were laid out by speculative developers and the houses built by 'a host of small capitalists investing savings and mortgage loans in the building of small groups of houses on individual lots', often with the intention of living in one house and renting the others. (fn. 24) In Jericho, which grew as a result of the removal there of the university press in 1830, the press did not build houses for its own workers, being content to take a few over later to rent to its employees. (fn. 25)

The pace of building fell away during the 1850s as the city failed to maintain its earlier population growth. There were sporadic attempts to redevelop some of the worst housing in the old city. In 1866 a group of tenements in St. Thomas's between the Hamel and Woodbine Place were demolished on the orders of the dean and chapter of Christ Church, and replaced by the Christ Church Model Dwellings, a three-storey block of 30 flats with open staircases, arranged around three sides of a communal courtyard. (fn. 26) In 1893 Christ Church built a four-storey block in Hollybush Row, known as the Christ Church New Buildings. (fn. 27) Both 'tenement' blocks, an unusual feature outside the larger industrial cities, continued in use in 1978.

The building of new houses in the later 19th century took place in outlying districts, and beyond the city's boundaries. There had already been some building on freehold land in North Parade, following the inclosure of St. Giles's parish in 1832, (fn. 28) and at Summertown outside the city boundary. The origin of the name Summertown is uncertain. The first references to the settlement were to Somers Town or Summers Town, but it was later claimed that those names were a mis-spelling of Summertown, so called because of its pleasant location. (fn. 29) It seems possible, however, that the settlement was first named Somers Town in imitation of the late-18th-century settlement of that name on the northern outskirts of London, in the parish of St. Pancras. (fn. 30) Beginning on the eastern side of the Banbury road c. 1¼ miles from Oxford in 1820, the settlement developed steadily, spreading across to Woodstock Road, north of what was later called South Parade, until by 1832 there were c. 125 houses and 560 people, mostly small tradesmen and labourers, attracted there by the availability of cheap accommodation in pleasant surroundings. (fn. 31) Summertown was developed by many of the men who were also active in Oxford itself; two of the principal speculative developers, Crews Dudley, a leading local solicitor, and George Kimber, tallow chandler, were also involved in the development of St. Ebbe's and Beaumont Street. (fn. 32) Summertown's development was, however, distinctive, combining small-scale cottage development with the building of substantial villas. It was neither fully rural nor suburban, and has been characterized as a 'tradesman's village'. (fn. 33) Some of the poorer cottages have been cleared, but a number of the better survive, including a group of six at the corner of Woodstock Road and South Parade, and the double house at no. 258 Banbury Road, converted into the Dew Drop inn. A small 18th-century farmhouse, part of Hawkswell farm to the east of Banbury Road, also survives. Among the more distinguished buildings was Summerhill, no. 333 Banbury Road, a 'rather grand Italianate villa', (fn. 34) first built in 1823, but later much extended and embellished. The Lodge, on Middle Way, was built c. 1840 in neo-classical style. Those later demolished included Kimber's own house, the Avenue, between Woodstock Road and Middle Way, the first large villa of the new development, replaced in 1965 by Bishop Kirk school. (fn. 35)

Later building in Summertown, mostly of cottages between the Banbury and Woodstock roads, continued slowly and only c. 50 new houses were built between 1851 and 1881. (fn. 36) Summertown was absorbed into the city in 1889, (fn. 37) and in the 1890s a new phase of development began. The area between South Parade and Beechcroft Road was laid out by the Oxford Industrial and Provident Building Society in 1893 and the society also developed the area between Victoria Road and Lonsdale Road after 1903. The Sunnymead estate, between Banbury Road and Water Eaton Road, belongs to the same period. The houses were built only slowly, but by 1930 c. 700 new houses had been added. (fn. 38) The new estates altered Summertown's character radically, imposing a pattern of housing that had more in common with North Oxford than with Summertown's own distinctive tradition of mixed development. Summertown became a middle-class suburb, and the growth of commercial development along Banbury road in the 20th century completed the elimination of its village character.

The first attempt at a planned development on the outlying land to the north of the city was on a large, isolated plot to the east of the Banbury road which had belonged to New College. The Board of Guardians bought the land in 1849 for a new workhouse, but the site proved unsuitable, and the guardians decided to develop it for middle-class housing. (fn. 39) By 1854 building had begun on the two crescents on the north and south of the Park Town estate, and in 1855 they and the crescent at the east end were complete. The remaining lots, intended for detached and semi-detached villas, were taken up more slowly, and two plots were never built on. The Park Town Estate Company, formed in 1857 to develop the remaining sites, went into liquidation in 1861, and the houses it had built were auctioned off. (fn. 40) The architect of many of the houses, Samuel Lipscomb Seckham, was also the principal speculative developer of the site. The lay-out and Italianate design of the houses were old-fashioned for the time, but the use on one or two houses of brick with stone dressings, instead of stone or stucco, anticipated the fashion which was to become dominant in the development of North Oxford. (fn. 41)

A few other Italianate stuccoed villas were built at the southern end of Banbury Road c. 1850, probably by S. L. Seckham. (fn. 42) Most of the remaining undeveloped land in the parish of St. Giles was owned by St. John's College, but it was not until the college obtained an Act of Parliament in 1855 enabling it to make 99-year building leases, (fn. 43) instead of the 40-year leases granted for Beaumont and St. John streets, that the way was prepared for the building of North Oxford proper. The initiative for the development came from the college's steward, F. J. Morrell, on whose advice it was that the college decided to develop its estate by means of building leases. (fn. 44) In 1860 St. John's began to develop, at Norham Manor, the eastern part of its estate. By selling the land as individual leasehold plots of good size, and by requiring all designs to be approved by a succession of college architects, who were in fact frequently the designers, the college was able to control the quality of building, and was responsible for the distinctive character which the area acquired over the next 50 years, as building spread northwards and westwards. The architects most involved were W. Wilkinson and his partner, H. W. Moore, and pupil F. Codd. (fn. 45) They designed houses either directly for a purchaser's own use, or on behalf of property speculators, who were very active in the development of North Oxford.

After a slow start the Norham Manor estate was completed in the 1870s. (fn. 46) On Walton Manor, west of the Banbury Road, the first lease, for nos. 121–3 Woodstock Road, seems to have been granted in 1856, but building on the estate did not become general until the 1860s. (fn. 47) During the 1870s building spread westwards towards the canal until Southmoor Road was completed in 1885. To the north, Rackham Lane (later St. Margaret's Road) was laid out in 1879, and development continued northwards, reaching Frenchay Road and Linton Road in 1895. (fn. 48) The development of the St. John's estate was finally completed in the early 20th century, when building reached just beyond Marston Ferry Road and Bainton Road along the Banbury and Woodstock roads. Further north freehold land between the two main roads was built up in the late 19th century and early 20th, merging with the Summertown development, which was spreading southwards from South Parade. (fn. 49)

Large, gabled Gothic villas of red or yellow brick and stone dressings are the characteristic houses of North Oxford, although the later houses were plainer. In general the larger houses lie along and to the east of the Banbury road, and there is a marked gradation of both house and plot size towards the west. Only where the proximity of the canal and railway prescribed social as well as physical limits to the development is there housing of smaller scale, but even there much of it is architect-designed: the spirit of North Oxford finds one of its most unlikely but forcible expressions in the artisans' cottages in Kingston Road, designed by C. C. Rolfe (1870). (fn. 50) Other notable houses are those in Hayfield Road, developed between 1886 and 1888 by the Oxford Industrial and Provident Building Society, and a block of seven cottages on the south side of Plantation Road, built in 1888 by the Oxford Cottage Improvement Company. (fn. 51) The housing development along the Banbury and Woodstock roads is remarkable for the number of mature trees there, which give the area a park-like quality that is lacking in the city's other suburbs.

It is a misconception that North Oxford grew up 'when the dons were released from celibacy and became prolific'. (fn. 52) By the time dons were allowed to marry, following the Royal Commission of 1877, (fn. 53) a large part of North Oxford was already developed, and the movement of dons out of college was in any case a gradual process. Professors and readers had always been allowed to live out, and they accounted for the relatively high concentration of university families in Norham Gardens and Park Town, but the freedom of dons to marry played only a subordinate role in the development of North Oxford as a whole. By 1883 only 53 members of colleges, including 15 professors, lived out, many of them outside North Oxford, notably in St. Giles Street and High Street. (fn. 54) The new houses were mostly taken by tradesmen, for whom the growth of North Oxford was the first opportunity to move from the city centre into suitable middle-class suburbs. Towards the end of the century the area also attracted an increasing number of retired and financially independent residents. In 1936 the first block of flats, combined with shops, was built at Belsyre Court, and later many of North Oxford's larger houses were converted for flats, hotels, or institutional use. An unusual feature of development in the otherwise residential character of North Oxford was the construction of the Osberton Radiator factory in 1919 in Osberton Road. The factory was transferred in 1925 to a near-by site on the western side of Woodstock Road. (fn. 55)

Associated with the development of North Oxford were a number of villas and terraces built in the 1860s and 1870s in Keble Road, Museum Road, Parks Road, and South Parks Road. Some of the larger villas, such as those in South Parks Road, were built for senior members of the university, but many of the terraces in Keble Road and Museum Road were speculative developments; they, too, were generally occupied by members of the university. (fn. 56) Wellington Square, at the northern end of St. John Street, was built between 1869 and 1876 as a speculative development of mixed domestic housing. (fn. 57) Between 1969 and 1973 the houses on the northern side of the square were demolished for new university registry offices. (fn. 58)

The work of speculative builders throughout the city's growing suburbs was encouraged by the Oxford Building and Investment Company. The company, founded in 1866 by a number of prominent citizens, was the most important building society in the city, concentrating on the building of houses for the 'trading and industrial classes'. The company became increasingly involved with the financing of speculative builders, until two-thirds of its transactions consisted of such business; partly as a result of the company's activities Oxford became noted for its unusually large number of speculative builders. When the company failed in 1883 it was found that too much credit had been offered to unreliable builders, and that the company secretary had been 'inviting' builders to use the company's loans to buy materials from his own timber yard and brick factory, which specialized in yellow brick: Walter Gray, who led the attack on the company and was later appointed its liquidator, claimed that it would be difficult to find one house built in connexion with the company in the past ten years which was of red brick. (fn. 59) In 1883 the building company had an interest in 378 houses, including 225 in Oxford and 104 in Swindon, and it was preparing to develop large estates in Grandpont and Cowley. (fn. 60)

The Oxford Industrial and Provident Building Society, founded in 1860, besides developing property in Hayfield Road and Summertown also undertook large developments in East Oxford. (fn. 61) The society merged with the Warwick and Rugby Building Society in 1964. (fn. 62) A third local society, the Oxford and Abingdon Building Society, established in 1851, was not involved in land purchase or house construction, but restricted its activities to loans for house purchase. (fn. 63) Other agencies at work in the city were the Oxford Cottage Improvement Company, the National Freehold Land Society, a Liberal organization, and the Conservative Freehold Land Society, the two last particularly active in East Oxford.

The major obstacle to expansion east of Magdalen Bridge was the absence of freehold land. (fn. 64) In the early 19th century there was much building in St. Clement's between High Street St. Clement's and the Cherwell, with small houses, workshops, and a brewery. Expansion eastwards followed the inclosure of Cowley parish in 1853. (fn. 65) The pattern of distribution of the land at inclosure became the basis for the subsequent layout of the streets, and is the underlying reason for many of the variations in its development. In general the areas closest to the bridge were built up first, although building plots were being sold in Magdalen Road and Percy Street as early as 1859, (fn. 66) and streets had been laid out, although by no means densely built up, as far east as Howard Street by 1878. (fn. 67)

Progress reports in local newspapers indicate that much of central East Oxford, between Iffley Road and Headington Road, was laid out by the National Freehold Land Society, who were also involved in the development of Temple Cowley in the 1860s. The Conservative Freehold Land Society laid out an estate between Stanley Road and Magdalen Road on which one or two villas were built, but, unlike its rival, the organization was not a success in Oxford. Most of the early development of East Oxford was on privately owned land, and the plots, which were small, were sold freehold. The land belonging to institutions does not appear to have been developed early except in the Rectory Road and Princes Street block which had been allotted to Pembroke College at inclosure, and which was developed by 1878. (fn. 68) In 1888 the Fairacres estate, south of the Iffley Road, was purchased from Magdalen College by the Oxford Industrial and Provident Building Society, and laid out for the building of 'superior workingmen's houses'. The development was unusual in that, like St. John's, Magdalen made it a condition of building that plans be submitted to the college for prior approval. (fn. 69) Most of the other college-owned land was still not built up by 1898, but Donnington Hospital had sold off two of its three large inclosure allotments. That on the north of Cowley Road, in the Divinity Road-Southfield Road area, was laid out by the Oxford Industrial and Provident Building Society in 1891. (fn. 70) By 1898 virtually all the privately owned land between the Cowley and Iffley roads had been developed, although many plots remained vacant. North of the Cowley Road, there was almost no development east of St. Bartholomew's hospital. South of the Iffley Road, building was in progress around Warwick Street and Argyle Street, an area largely developed by two local builders, W. Gray and T. H. Kingerlee. (fn. 71)

Much of the development of St. Clement's and East Oxford was of a piecemeal nature, any unity being derived from the widespread use of narrow plots, terracing, red or yellow brick, and two-storey elevations. Some of the larger houses on Iffley Road are reminiscent of North Oxford, and are probably by the same architects, (fn. 72) but the deep building lines and leafy setting are lacking.

Little building took place before the second half of the 19th century on the low-lying ground south of Folly Bridge between the Hinksey stream and the river Thames. On the east side of Abingdon Road a row of semi-detached villas were built c. 1860, (fn. 73) but the first streets to be laid out were further south in New Hinksey, which lies on a gravel island. The development was presumably stimulated by the proximity of the railway, opened in 1844 with a station near Folly Bridge; (fn. 74) there were c. 50 small houses by 1867, (fn. 75) and a church (St. John the Evangelist) was built between 1870 and 1872. (fn. 76) Building continued slowly there in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1879 the Oxford Building and Investment Company laid out the Grandpont estate south of the river, much of it on reclaimed marshy ground. Work began on Marlborough Road and Buckingham Street, but the development of the estate was delayed by the company's collapse, and was completed only slowly. (fn. 77) Both the Grandpont and the New Hinksey estates spread gradually southwards in the late 19th century, until development of the area west of Abingdon Road was largely complete in the early 20th century. (fn. 78) The east side of Abingdon Road remained largely farmland and college playing-fields.

At the beginning of the 19th century St. Thomas's church marked the westward limit of development in its parish except for the mill and some farm buildings on the site of Oseney Abbey. In 1850 the railway cut the parish in half and in 1853 the land was inclosed. (fn. 79) The building of the L.N.W.R. station at the eastern end of the Botley road in 1851 and the removal there of the G.W.R. station in 1852 brought a demand by railway workers for housing in the area, (fn. 80) and building first took place at Oseney Town, between Oseney Bridge and St. Frideswide's Bridge, on land leased from Christ Church by G. P. Hester, town clerk, and laid out by him in 1851. (fn. 81) After an initial surge of building in the 1850s, however, development slowed, and was completed in piecemeal fashion during the next fifty years. The pattern was the same in New Oseney, the area between the river and railway, south of Botley Road; streets were laid out and development of terraced housing begun in the 1860s, but the area long remained a mixture of houses and market gardens, sporadically built upon during the remainder of the century. Across the river from East Street the electric power station, an extensive two-storeyed building of decorative brickwork, was built in 1892, and extended frequently thereafter. (fn. 82) West of St. Frideswide's Bridge, Bulstake Town or New Botley was laid out in 1870. (fn. 83) The Cripley estate, west of the G.W.R. station, a leasehold estate on Christ Church land, was laid out in 1878 by the Oxford Building and Investment Company. Several houses were built before the company's collapse halted development. (fn. 84) The estate was completed in the 1880s by T. H. Kingerlee, (fn. 85) whose firm was also responsible for further developments, at the turn of the century, from Ferry Hinksey Road westwards. (fn. 86)

Associated with suburban development were many institutional buildings, (fn. 87) some of them the most prominent features of their localities: the churches of St. Barnabas, and St. Philip and St. James, for example, dominate the skyline east of Port Meadow. In East Oxford may be mentioned the Cowley Fathers' church of St. John the Evangelist, the Roman Catholic church of St. Edmund and St. Frideswide, the parish church of St. Mary and St. John, the Cowley Road Methodist church, and the Cowley Road Hospital, formerly the workhouse. East Oxford School is built partially on the site of an extensive brickworks, the source of bricks for many East Oxford houses.

After the initial activity in the city centre in the late 18th century and early 19th, building there slowed. In 1842 University College demolished the Three Tuns, built in 1642, to make a college extension, and in 1845 Magdalen College demolished the Greyhound inn and other houses in Gravel Walk. (fn. 88) Market Street was widened by the market committee c. 1845, and extensive ranges of shops added to the north-west and south-west sides of the street. (fn. 89) In the later 19th century, however, increased demand by an expanding university for goods, services, and space, the desire to 'improve' the city in the manner of other cities, and the novel availability of living accommodation in the burgeoning suburbs, combined to bring about farreaching changes in the city's appearance. The first major developments were the Randolph hotel (1863–6), large new premises at no. 56 Cornmarket Street (1864) for Grimbly Hughes, the city's leading grocers, and the London and County bank, later the National Westminster, at nos. 120–1 High Street. William Wilkinson was the architect of both the Randolph and the elaborate frontage of Grimbly Hughes. (fn. 90) Few others attempted to match the Gothic splendours of those buildings, but the spirit of improvement was widespread (fn. 91) and by 1883 William Morris was complaining of how little in Oxford was unscathed by 'the fury of the thriving shop and the progressive college'. (fn. 92) Cornmarket Street was particularly affected, its appearance drastically altered by a process of demolition, rebuilding, and refronting that touched most of the buildings in the street. Some of the street's oldest buildings were replaced in the late 19th century and early 20th, notably the tenements in Frewin Court demolished in 1879; the Wellington public house (no. 61), removed in 1890 for a bank; the White Hart inn (no. 21), replaced by a hotel and restaurant in 1900; the Roebuck inn, demolished in 1925 by Woolworth's. (fn. 93) Although the main part of the Roebuck (no. 8) was entirely rebuilt at that time, nos. 9–10 may only have been refronted; the apparently Georgian front is not original. (fn. 94) In Magdalen Street West the 17th- and 18th-century buildings were demolished during a series of alterations by Elliston and Cavell, the city's leading furnishing store, and others between 1876 and 1913. (fn. 95) The remodelling of the cross-roads at the north end of Cornmarket Street was completed by the building in 1910 of St. George's Mansions on the site of the George hotel at the south-west corner, and by William Baker's large neo-classical shop (1915) and the adjoining Boswell's (1929) at the south-east corner. (fn. 96)

In High Street an extension of Brasenose College in 1887–9 replaced a number of shops and houses. (fn. 97) For the Examination Schools (1877–82) the most prominent of Oxford's inns, the Angel, was largely demolished, together with several 'crowded and dilapidated houses'. (fn. 98) Oriel College's Rhodes building opposite St. Mary's church replaced a group of apparently late-Georgian shops and houses. (fn. 99) Most commercial development in High Street took the form of alterations and extensions to existing buildings, although a completely new street, King Edward Street (F. Codd), was laid out by Oriel College on the site of Swan Court. The new street, comprising houses, shops, and offices was built as a single development in 1873; the conversion of some shops to houses in 1875 (fn. 1) may indicate that the development was not a commercial success.

Queen Street was almost entirely rebuilt in the 19th century. It was widened at its west end in 1874 when the church of St. Peter-le-Bailey was demolished. (fn. 2) The shops in Queen Street traded principally on a cash-only system in contrast to some of the grander establishments in High Street and Cornmarket Street. No. 32 Queen Street was, until c. 1928, the shop of Thomas Hyde and Co., wholesale clothiers, part of whose extensive factory, behind the shop, survived in 1978 as a church hall. (fn. 3) In St. Aldate's Street the most important developments were the building of the new Post Office in 1880–1 and the opening of the new town hall in 1897. (fn. 4) George Street, which had previously attracted little attention from developers, became more a part of the commercial centre after New Inn Hall Street was extended into it in 1872. (fn. 5) Many houses, some of them 17th-century, were demolished to make way for, among others, the boys' High School (Sir T. G. Jackson, 1879–81), the New Theatre (1885–6, rebuilt c. 1933), the Y.M.C.A. (no. 10, 1891), Lucas's clothing factory at the corner of Bulwark's Lane (1890), and the Gothic corn exchange and fire station (H. W. Moore, 1894–6). (fn. 6) Apart from the extension northwards of St. John's College, St. Giles's Street was largely unaffected by Victorian development. Nos. 66–7 St. Giles's Street, a stone building in restrained Gothic style, with carved stonework and decorative ironwork, was built in 1869 for George Wyatt, ironmonger. It provides a good example of combined commercial and domestic development. Number 67 was used by the Wyatts, and no. 66 was let separately as a house and shop. (fn. 7)

The elevation of the city to the status of county borough in 1889, and the assumption by the city council for the first time of a full range of local governmental powers, (fn. 8) was marked by a display of civic pride in the redevelopment of the Carfax area in the 1890s and the building of the grandiose town hall, which followed a tour by leading councillors of the great midland and northern cities to see the sort of monuments they felt appropriate to Oxford's new status. (fn. 9) The problem of congestion at Carfax was met in 1896 by demolishing St. Martin's church except for the tower, which was left to form the focal point of a spacious paved area, extended by widening the south-east corner of Queen Street. (fn. 10) Several properties in Cornmarket Street north of the church were also demolished in 1896, and replaced by an imposing stone building designed by H. T. Hare for Frank East, tailor. The Midland Bank took over the building in 1914. (fn. 11) The north-east corner was developed next, with an exuberant bank building in 1901, and the remodelling of the area was completed in 1930–1 by the construction of twin buildings of plain stone on the south-east and south-west corners. (fn. 12)

The great period of Gothic institutional building produced, besides the university and college buildings in High Street, the university museum (Sir T. Deane and B. Woodward, 1855–60), the Broad Street frontages of Exeter (Sir George Gilbert Scott, 1854–5) and Balliol (A. Waterhouse, 1867–8), the Indian Institute (B. Champneys, 1883–96), the Oxford Union (B. Woodward, 1856), the Christ Church Meadow buildings (T. N. Deane, 1862–6), the New College range (Sir George Gilbert Scott, 1872) in Holywell Street, and the spectacular polychrome brickwork of Keble College (W. Butterfield, 1868–82). (fn. 13) The effect on the city streets was dramatic. Broad Street acquired a monumental appearance, emphasised in the 20th century by the building of the New Bodleian Library (Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, 1937–40), which replaced a group of 17th- and 18th-century houses, (fn. 14) and by an extension to Exeter College (1964) at the corner of Turl Street. (fn. 15) Holywell Street, narrower and more delicate in scale than Broad Street, was dominated on the south side by the New College buildings, the Indian Institute, and in 1929 the Hertford College extension, an imitation Georgian building.

The building of the university museum and Keble College outside the city centre marked the beginnings of the university's expansion into a new area. The University Parks were laid out from 1864 onwards, (fn. 16) and the Science Area, beginning as a series of extensions to the museum in the late 19th century, spread eastwards along the edge of the Parks, encroaching later on the triangular area north of Keble Road and on the former playing fields south of South Parks Road. (fn. 17) The building of Mansfield College (1887–9), Manchester College (1891–3), Rhodes House (1929), and the Law Library (1961–4) (fn. 18) established the university's presence in the former fields of Holywell; Mansfield Road was opened into Holywell Street to provide access to the new colleges. (fn. 19) In the 20th century the shortage of space in the central area forced the academic community to build further afield, the women's colleges mostly in North Oxford, St. Catherine's College (1960–4) and Wolfson College (1968 and later) in the meadows close to the river Cherwell. Nuffield College, built on the site of the canal basin between 1949 and 1960, used one of the few remaining large sites close to the city centre. (fn. 20) The central colleges solved the problems of rapid expansion after the Second World War in a wide variety of ways, some affecting only the internal aspect of the college, others involving the demolition of neighbouring houses and walls, or the taking of important sites beyond the college's limits. Despite the almost invariable use of expensive materials and the frequent sacrifice of room-space in an attempt to fit the buildings to their surroundings, few college extensions won general approval. The streets most deeply affected by such endeavours included the south side of Blue Boar Street, where new Christ Church buildings were built in 1964–8; Magpie Lane, where there were new buildings for Corpus Christi College; Longwall Street, where several old houses were replaced by New College's Sacher Building (1961–2); Little Clarendon Street, where shops and houses were replaced by commercial and residential development (1958–66) for Somerville College on the north side, and by the university registry offices on the south; Museum Road, where large extensions were built by St. John's College, and Keble College. The extensions built away from colleges included some of the most controversial, Magdalen College's Waynflete Building, at the eastern end of Magdalen Bridge, and Queen's College's Florey Building overlooking Angel Meadow.

Redevelopment of the city centre took place in piecemeal fashion. There was major reconstruction in St. Aldate's in the 1920s and 1930s, when a number of courts on the east side were replaced by the Christ Church Memorial Gardens (1925–6), the police station (1936), and the labour exchange (1936). (fn. 21) On the west side several small shops and houses were replaced in 1932–3 by Morris Garages, a confident commercial building celebrating the triumph of the motor car. Cornmarket Street and Queen Street remained the centre of commercial activity, and were increasingly dominated by chain-stores in the 1950s and 1960s. In Cornmarket Street the Clarendon hotel was demolished in 1955 by Woolworth's. (fn. 22) In 1963 Grimbly Hughes was replaced by Littlewood's, and Marks & Spencer's rebuilt the store which they had occupied since the 1930s. In 1978 they removed to Queen Street, where they had built one of their largest branches. At the western end of Queen Street a large new development, the Westgate Centre, comprising shops, offices, and a new central library, was built between 1969 and 1972. Modern buildings began to dominate in Cornmarket Street, Queen Street, St. Ebbe's Street, and, to a lesser extent George Street, but in High Street, Broad Street, and St. Aldate's smaller, traditional shops interspersed with domestic properties have been preserved, alterations being restricted largely to the replacement of shop fronts. The overall architectural treatment of the central area of the city by both the university and commercial interests has been frequently criticized, not only because of the demolition of ancient buildings during the 20th century, but because the materials or scale of the new buildings were thought inappropriate. (fn. 23)

The areas of older housing just outside the city centre were subject to sporadic clearance from the 1930s. St. Thomas's lost a large part of its population as a result of slum clearance combined with commercial development: the castle mill was demolished in 1930, (fn. 24) and Paradise Street, Tidmarsh Lane, Park End Street, and Hythe Bridge Street were given over to offices, warehouses, and garages. Beaver House, a large uncompromising building in concrete and dark glass, was built for Blackwell's in 1971–2. (fn. 25) Housing clearance in St. Ebbe's began c. 1962 and was completed ten years later, when the last house in Paradise Square was demolished. (fn. 26) St. Ebbe's was partially redeveloped by the building of 80 maisonettes on the site of the old gas works on the north bank of the river, and magistrates' courts were built off Speedwell Street in 1966–9, opposite the telephone exchange, completed in 1957. (fn. 27) Work began on the College of Further Education at Oxpens in 1968, and the college opened in 1972. (fn. 28) Most of the southern part of St. Ebbe's however, remained blighted by indecision over its development. In 1978, although there were plans to begin housing development, the area was still largely given over to temporary car parks and waste ground, the future of proposed inner relief-roads was still undecided, and little had been done to improve the riverside, officially described as 'squalid' in 1963. (fn. 29) The area between St. Ebbe's Street and Castle Street was totally redeveloped by the building of the Westgate Centre, and Castle Street itself was realigned. New offices were built in 1974 for the county council, at the corner of New Road and the realigned Castle Street, partially on the site of shops and houses possibly 17th-century in origin. (fn. 30) It was also planned to clear Jericho, but in the face of strong protest following the St. Ebbe's clearances, the council decided instead on a policy of 'progressive development', involving the rehabilitation of houses where possible, and the replacement of irredeemable property by new small-scale domestic building. The plan received national attention as a pioneering venture, (fn. 31) but more demolition took place than had been anticipated, and large areas were cleared and rebuilt, particularly in the area between Walton Street, Cranham Street, and Hart Street. (fn. 32)

The floodlands of the river Thames and Cherwell restricted development and made town planning, especially when traffic became heavier, extremely difficult. A town planning sub-committee set up by the council in 1921 submitted proposals from time to time, including a plan to connect South and East Oxford by road and bridge, but the first comprehensive survey of the city was conducted in 1931 by the Oxfordshire Regional Planning Advisory Committee, representing the county council and other planning authorities. (fn. 33) That report was the first to anticipate the need for expansion to be controlled, and over the next forty years it was followed by a continual succession of surveys, inquiries, and reports, including the seminal Oxford Replanned (1948) of Dr. Thomas Sharp. There was some agreement on the need to control growth, to provide services for the population east of Magdalen Bridge, to complete the ring road, which in 1938 comprised the northern, and part of the southern bypass, (fn. 34) to restrict traffic in the city centre, and to build inner relief-roads. There was no agreement over details: the city's own proposals (fn. 35) omitted the suggestion of Sharp and others for a relief-road across Christ Church meadow, and rejected the plan of the Oxford Preservation Trust (fn. 36) for a completely new civic centre east of Magdalen Bridge. Whereas Sharp advocated the total replacement of Morris Motors and Pressed Steel by small-scale light industry, the council decided instead only to place a ceiling on future growth by the motor industry. The Minister of Local Government and Housing, however, insisted on the inclusion of reliefroads, thereby precipitating twenty years of proposals, counter-proposals, decisions, and reversals that at times made the city a national laughing-stock. (fn. 37) The traffic problem in the city centre was eased by the opening in 1962 of the Donnington Bridge road, linking the southern and eastern suburbs, and the Marston Ferry road, linking Marston and Headington with North Oxford in 1971. The proposed Christ Church meadow road met with powerful opposition, led by Christ Church, and it was abandoned in 1968 in favour of an east–west link road through Eastwyke Farm and along Bullingdon Road to Headington Hill, and a north–south spine road traversing the city east of the main railway line and connecting with the bypasses by means of spur-roads. (fn. 38) In 1971 the minister finally decided that the Eastwyke Farm road and the spine road, without its extensions, should proceed, but in 1972 the Labour party won control of the city council and refused, despite orders from the government, to countenance any major new roads through the city centre. In 1974 responsibility passed to the county council, which decided to allow modified versions of the proposed roads to remain on the planning map for future implementation.

The vast suburban development of Oxford in the 20th century derived from the city's transformation into an industrial centre. Beginning in 1912 in the former Military College in Cowley, at the corner of Hollow Way and Cowley Road, Morris Motors soon began to expand, on the same site at first, but later covering a large area to the south and east. By 1938 the various factories had reached almost their full extent, with the Pressed Steel works reaching Roman Way, beyond what later became the eastern bypass. (fn. 39) Between 1921 and 1931 the population of the Cowley and Iffley district grew by 122 per cent, and Headington by 79 per cent. (fn. 40) Because the old city remained the service centre for the eastern suburbs development did not spread out evenly around the motor works but took the form of an irregular crescent from Marston to Iffley. The suburbs of Cowley, Marston, and Headington (where Old Headington, New Headington, and Headington Quarry were almost amalgamated by 1936) (fn. 41) remained distinct suburban areas, largely because of physical barriers to development such as Cowley Marsh.

By 1939 the corporation had built more than 2,000 new houses, mostly at Rose Hill (449), Freelands (365 by 1927), Gipsy Lane (314 by 1930), Cutteslowe (300 by 1934), South Park (241 c. 1931), Weirs Lane (188 by 1937), New Marston (165 by 1938), Wolvercote (119 by 1938), and Headington (101 c. 1925). (fn. 42) Some of the houses, such as those on Morrell Avenue, are of a notably high standard, presumably because they were built at a time of generous Exchequer subsidies. (fn. 43) More than 4,700 houses were built by private developers before 1937, most of them in areas added to the city in 1929, and many in developments north of Summertown, extending beyond the ring-road. The suburbs also spread beyond the city's boundaries to include Botley and Littlemore, and several near-by villages, such as Kidlington and Kennington (Berks.) became increasingly suburban in character. The hills around the city were favoured by the prosperous middle classes for the building of large houses, development spreading in particular to Boar's Hill, Cumnor Hill, Headington Hill, and Shotover.

GROWTH OF THE URBAN AREA

In common with other towns, Oxford faced grave problems of housing shortage in 1945. In 1946 there were nearly 5,000 applicants on the housing list, and, despite the building of 1,400 council dwellings, there were still 5,000 on the list in 1950. (fn. 44) By then very little suitable building land was left in the city: of an area of c. 8,400 acres in 1948 almost half was built up, a further quarter was liable to flood. (fn. 45) The danger of haphazard development across the city boundaries was checked by the adoption in 1956 of a green belt around Oxford, the first outside London, (fn. 46) and by the completion of the ring road in 1965, but the barrier was breached by extensive building at Barton, beginning in 1946 and comprising 1,600 houses by 1977. (fn. 47) Most of the new housing estates after 1945 were built east and south-east of the city, notably at Rose Hill (690 houses, begun in 1946), New Marston (70 from 1950), Northway (570 from 1951–2), Wood Farm (510 from 1953), Cowley airfield, off Barns Road (240 from 1955), Blackbird Leys (2,370 from 1957), Town Furze, in New Headington (260 from 1958), Horspath Road (310 from 1958), Headington Quarry (80 from 1959), Slade Park (320 from 1974), and the Laurels (150 from 1975). Northway and Blackbird Leys estates made use of multi-storey tower blocks for the first time, but such buildings were not generally considered suitable, because of the invasion of Oxford's skyline. The council also built c. 300 houses in North Oxford, completed in 1962. The scarcity of building land forced the corporation to build almost as many dwellings outside the city, particularly at Minchery Farm, Littlemore, and at Kidlington. Although the area east of Magdalen Bridge was well-supplied with shops, (fn. 48) the larger and more specialized establishments were in the city centre, and it was both to avoid congestion there and to serve the needs of the population to the east that the Cowley shopping centre, largely completed by 1965, was built at Between Towns Road. In 1972 the centre comprised 69 shops, 112 flats, and offices and car parks. (fn. 49) Major hospital developments were established on the high ground between Headington and Cowley, and in the 1970s a major new hospital complex, the John Radcliffe, was established in a prominent position off Headley Way. (fn. 50) The College of Technology, later the Polytechnic, was sited in Headington at Gipsy Lane in 1955. (fn. 51)

ECONOMIC HISTORY

In the late 18th century and early 19th Oxford remained a moderate-sized market town and seat of a university that formed a major customer for its goods and services. The rapid increase of national population did not at first affect the city, which grew more slowly than other centres of similar size, and may even have lost population by net migration. (fn. 52) After 1810, however, Oxford grew rapidly at the expense of neighbouring towns, drawing in large numbers seeking employment. (fn. 53) The city remained untouched by the developing industrial revolution, despite a flourishing river and canal trade and a position at the junction of major routes from London to South Wales, and from the Midlands to southern England. Before the opening of the Oxford Canal in 1790 Oxford's trading links were primarily with London, chiefly by means of the river: malt and grain were the major cargoes conveyed to the capital, the barges returning with sea-coal, and foodstuffs. (fn. 54) The linking of the Oxford Canal to the river made Oxford for a short time the point of interchange for the shipment of goods from the Midlands to London, and the resultant increase in traffic was reflected in the growth of the canal company's receipts from £5,500 in 1789 to £26,000 in 1796. (fn. 55)

The opening of the canal provided employment and brought about a dramatic fall in the price of coal in Oxford, (fn. 56) but cheaper transport and fuel stimulated no new industries in the city. Traffic to Oxford itself continued to increase, but the opening in 1800 of the Grand Junction Canal from Braunston (Northants.) to London removed almost all the through traffic. Oxford relapsed to become, in terms of the national economy, a backwater.

The construction of the canal, however, demonstrated that capital was available in Oxford for an attractive proposition; share issues in 1769 and 1774 raised £30,000 there, and two later instalments of loan capital raised by the company brought in £130,000, of which £70,000 came from Oxford. The money came almost equally from citizens and university men, some of whom played a leading part in the running of the company. (fn. 57) The stimulus to commercial activity provided by the canal was reflected in property values in the city, which, following a long period of stagnation, increased up to four-fold between 1790 and 1830. (fn. 58) A flourishing commercial life is also suggested by the growth of banking towards the end of the 18th century. The first known bank was that of William Fletcher and John Parsons, later called the Old Bank, which developed from the partners' mercery business; banking accounts survive from 1775, although Fletcher may have acted as a banker before that date. (fn. 59) The bank of Thomas Walker and Co., also known as the University and City Bank, opened at the premises of Edward Lock and Son, goldsmiths, in 1790, although Lock seems to have been involved in banking since at least 1775. (fn. 60) A third bank, Richard Cox and Co., was in business by 1790, (fn. 61) and a fourth, Tubb, Wootten, and Tubb followed in the early 19th century. (fn. 62) In the financially difficult times of the early 19th century Oxford's banks were unusually stable, (fn. 63) largely because of their assiduous cultivation of university business. The university connexion, essential at first, later gave rise to criticism that the banks were little interested in the needs and opportunities presented by the city. (fn. 64)

Until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 the corporation and University maintained their conservative and restrictive attitudes towards the town's economy. The monopoly exercised by freemen and privileged persons in their respective trades was supported by the threat of legal action by the corporation and discommoning by the university. The university agreed to restrict privileged persons to the trade in which they had matriculated, and also sought to control competition within the body of matriculated tradesmen. (fn. 65) The corporation for its part agreed not to invade the rights and privileges of matriculated tradesmen. (fn. 66) The legal right of freemen to exercise trade in the city to the exclusion of all except privileged persons was clearly established in 1794 in a successful action brought by the corporation against an unfree trader, (fn. 67) but the frequent reports of the council's committee for trade suggest that its task of maintaining the freemen's monopoly became increasingly difficult. The Municipal Corporation's commissioners nevertheless complained that exclusive trading privileges were stifling enterprise and restricting opportunities of employment. (fn. 68)

Sources: Universal Brit. Dir. (1790); Pigot, Dir. Oxon. (1823, 1844). Livery-stable keepers are omitted from the 1823 directory.

The abolition of exclusive trading rights by the Municipal Corporations Act was reckoned by some to have revolutionized trade in Oxford for the better, because of the influx of new businesses drawn into the city by the prospect of university custom (see Table XII). (fn. 69) New tradesmen, however, still faced the same entrenched attitudes, nowhere made clearer than at an inquiry into the proposed extension of the Great Western Railway to Oxford in 1836 and 1837. Among the city's leading businessmen, both the proponents and opponents of the Bill seem to have agreed that the city should retain a closed, unchanging economic structure, and differed only over whether the railway would threaten or benefit that structure. The principal worry was over the effect on trade with the university: would '£5,000 spent at the college be spent in London', or would easier access to London markets improve trade in Oxford itself? (fn. 70) Witnesses showed no desire to bring in the railway in order to alter radically the whole structure of the city's economy; those who might have done, 'the operative and working classes', (fn. 71) were not asked.

To outsiders Oxford appeared fairly prosperous, (fn. 72) but its economy was based narrowly upon the provision of goods and services. Of 678 apprentices enrolled in the city between 1770 and 1795 almost a fifth were apprenticed to tailors, and only slightly fewer to cordwainers. Apprentices were otherwise enrolled in substantial numbers to grocers (38 apprentices), bakers (31), cabinet makers (28), mercers (26), butchers (25), whitesmiths (23), upholders (21), and joiners (20). (fn. 73) The domination of the occupational structure by small tradesmen, craftsmen, and artisans is confirmed by poll books, (fn. 74) which also reveal a particularly large increase between 1806 and 1835 in the number of freemen engaged in food and drink trades (from 104 to 297), in clothing (108 to 206), and building (84 to 198), while the growth of the university had greatly stimulated the printing and bookbinding trades, where numbers rose from 10 to 90. (fn. 75) A perhaps more reliable indication of the effect of population growth on the occupational structure is given by trade directories (see Table XII), which show a great increase in the number of firms established in Oxford in the early 19th century. The number catering for the less well-to-do grew very rapidly, but there is no indication that those catering for the better-off of the university and neighbourhood suffered any decline. Doctors, lawyers, jewellers, gunsmiths, clock and watchmakers, and wine and spirit merchants all increased in number. Printing was dominated by the university press, which was the largest single employer of labour in the city in the early 19th century. The press expanded rapidly following its removal to Walton Street in 1830, and in the later 19th century between 250 and 300 people were employed there. (fn. 76)

Most businesses tried to diversify their custom as much as possible, but it was accepted that the university offered the key to economic success. Although a 'place of considerable business', Oxford was essentially a 'place for local consumption' almost wholly dependent upon the university. Thomas Sheard, a wealthy grocer and first sheriff of the reformed corporation, claimed to have a 'good university connexion, and a good family connexion as well', but there was no question but that his prosperity lay with the university: 'all the property I have in the world is staked there'. (fn. 77) The consequent economic imbalance brought serious difficulties. Many artisans and labourers were unemployed during university vacations; tradesmen faced the added complication of a trading system based heavily on long-term credit. Members of the university expected credit, and many tradesmen were only too willing to oblige: in 1795 it was said that 'at present in Oxford money is nearly useless', (fn. 78) and the beginning of each academic year saw the spectacle, admitted on all sides to be deplorable, of large numbers of tradesmen waiting on freshmen to solicit their custom. (fn. 79) The granting of credit was balanced by the raising of prices, which were higher in Oxford than elsewhere. Complaints by the university about high prices were countered by claims that tradesmen might have their entire fortune locked up in long credit, and that many businesses failed as a result. (fn. 80) Until 1844 tradesmen had some safeguard in that they were allowed access to undergraduates' home addresses; (fn. 81) if all else failed, a creditor could veto a debtor's degree by 'plucking' the proctor's gown at the degree ceremony when an indebted candidate's name was announced. (fn. 82) Few tradesmen, however, could afford to run the consequent risk of a boycott. (fn. 83) In 1779 booksellers appealed for the better payment of debts, and in 1848 some leading tradesmen formed a short-lived Oxford Trading Association to prevent soliciting for custom and ensure prompt settlement of bills. (fn. 84) Some colleges made sporadic attempts to monitor students' spending, but the problem was never resolved satisfactorily.

Although the population of the university increased after the Napoleonic Wars, (fn. 85) it was unable to provide employment for all the additional manpower in the city. The problem was mitigated by a lessening of immigration after 1840, and the influx itself generated some employment, in the building trade in the short term, and in service trades more permanently. There was much university and college building in the early 19th century, and even greater activity in domestic building, reaching a peak between 1821 and 1831. (fn. 86) During the 1830s one local builder employed between 200 and 300 men. (fn. 87)

Oxford's importance as anything more than a local market centre was re