High Street (east), Nos 53-59

The builder of this impressive, late 18th-century 3-storey frontage, with its symmetrical façade of ashlar limestone, is unknown. A central doorway leads to a through-passage and rear courtyard, with a collection of much-altered earlier buildings. Each side of the building has a separate entrance, wide 18th-century fireplaces, and coal cellars. The intention may have been to create a high-class lodging house or a mixed domestic/working complex, but nothing is known before 1841 when there were 5 separate households, headed by a basket-maker, milliner, agricultural labourer, horse-keeper, and painter. Between 4 and 6 households were recorded throughout the 19th century, but in 1910 the property was apparently vacant. For much of the 20th century a shop on the south side of the entrance was the collection and delivery office of the Burford Laundry (local inf.): graffiti on the façade may date from that period. A bookshop occupied the north side from 1971–93. In 2007 the front still contained 2 shops behind domestic window openings, with domestic properties at the rear.

(Photo by Heather Horner, Oxfordshire Buildings Record)