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Thornton's Bookshop

1835 establishments in England2002 disestablishments in EnglandBookshops of EnglandFormer shops in EnglandHistory of Oxford
Retail companies disestablished in 2002Retail companies established in 1835Shops in OxfordUnited Kingdom retail company stubs
11 Broad Street, Oxford, October 2021
11 Broad Street, Oxford, October 2021

Thornton's Bookshop (locally known as Thornton's) was the oldest university bookshop in Oxford, England. It was founded in 1835 by Joseph Thornton (1808–1891) in Magdalen Street.From 1870, the bookshop was located at 11 Broad Street (opposite Balliol College), continued as a family business by five generations of the Thornton family and from 1983 by the Meeuws family, but closed at the end of 2002. The business continues to sell via the Internet and mail order from Faringdon, about 18 miles from Oxford. The shop premises on Broad Street were frequently used for television adaptations like Brideshead Revisited, and the last Inspector Morse episode, The Remorseful Day.The premises are now occupied by "The Shop of Secrets", a Harry Potter-themed shop.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Thornton's Bookshop (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Thornton's Bookshop
Broad Street, Oxford City Centre

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N 51.754218 ° E -1.257658 °
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The Shop of Secrets

Broad Street 11
OX1 3AY Oxford, City Centre
England, United Kingdom
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theshopofsecrets.co.uk

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11 Broad Street, Oxford, October 2021
11 Broad Street, Oxford, October 2021
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Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. Balliol has a long history of innovation. It was one of the first Oxford colleges to appoint a Fellow in English, a Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science and was a founding college for Classical Archaeology and Ancient History. Famously, it was the birthplace of PPE in the 1920s and A. D. Lindsay, later master, played a key role in establishing the degree. In 2006, 45% of Balliol undergraduates obtained First Class degrees, a record within Oxford at the time.Members of Balliol have been awarded 13 Nobel Prizes with 12 Laureates (the most of any Oxford college). Balliol has educated four Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom (the second highest of any Oxford college), Harald V of Norway, Empress Masako of Japan, President Richard von Weizsäcker of Germany, Seretse Khama of Botswana, several Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, 7 Archbishops of Canterbury and 2 Cardinals. Balliol alumni also include the astronomer James Bradley, legal figures Lord Bingham and John Marshall Harlan II, geneticist Baruch Samuel Blumberg, writers Robert Southey, Gerard Hopkins, Matthew Arnold and Algernon Swinburne, historians R. H. Tawney, Christopher Hill and James H. Billington and philosopher Derek Parfit. Among the most famous students are the "Father of Economics" Adam Smith, the leader of the Baháʼí Faith Shoghi Effendi, the biologist Julian Huxley and his son Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World.John Wycliffe, who oversaw the first complete translation of the Bible into English, was master of Balliol in the 1360s. Due to the college's antiquity, knowledge of membership before around 1630 is incomplete, though eminent figures like Sir Thomas More and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester have been suggested as potential students. Through his friendship with master Benjamin Jowett, the poet Robert Browning became the college's first Honorary Fellow.When John de Balliol died in 1268, his widow, Dervorguilla (whose wealth far exceeded that of his own) continued his work in setting up the college. It fell to Dervorguilla to confirm the foundation, with the blessing of the Bishop as well as the University hierarchy. She established a permanent endowment for the College in 1282, as well as its first formal Statutes. She is thus considered the co-founder of the college, and is commemorated through the Dervorguilla Society, and the annual Dervorguilla Seminar Series, while a Latin Requiem Mass was sung at Balliol for the 700th anniversary of her death.

Boswells of Oxford
Boswells of Oxford

Boswells of Oxford was the largest independent family-run department store in Oxford, England. The store closed in 2020.The store first traded in 1738, and was the second oldest family-owned department store in the world. It was initially founded by Francis Boswell and located at 50 Cornmarket Street. Boswells started up in business manufacturing and selling luggage and trunks, and it is believed their wares were taken on Captain Cook's trip to explore the Southern Hemisphere. The business remained in the Boswell family until 1890 when there was no one left for direct succession. The ownership passed to Arthur Pearson, the then owner of the Oxford Drug Company. Boswells and the Oxford Drug Company are still owned by the Pearson family and, unusually for a Department Store, Boswells still contained a Pharmacy - right until it closed. In 1928, it expanded its premises with the main entrance moving to Broad Street, opposite Balliol College and close to the spot (marked with a cross in the middle of the road) where the Oxford Martyrs were burnt at the stake in the 16th century. The store was traditional in style and a local shopping landmark, particularly for toys, kitchenware, and luggage, continuing the tradition from 1738. It retained a smaller side entrance at the north end of Cornmarket Street, which was originally the Oxford Drug Company building. Its address is now 1–4 Broad Street. The company did not use an apostrophe in its name, although others sometimes mistakenly do so. In 2014, the store launched an e-commerce website to replace a purely marketing website and sold products from all its departments online. In 2015, Boswells expanded upstairs to create a new tearoom and customer toilets, and added a takeaway cafe in 2018. The store departments were: Basement – Cookshop and Kitchen Electricals, Hardware, Household Essentials, Lighting, Small Electricals, Tableware Ground Floor – Cosmetics, Accessories, Umbrellas and Bags, Gifts, Luggage, Pharmacy, Tourism, Broad Street Cafe First Floor – 1738 Tearoom, Toys and Games Second Floor – Bedding and Bathrooms, Customer Toilets, Haberdashery, Parcel Collection pointIn 2020, there was a closing down sale after 282 years of trading. The COVID-19 pandemic brought forward the closure of the store. The store closed due to the crisis, apart from the pharmacy, which closed on 11 April 2020.

Zacharias and Co.
Zacharias and Co.

Zacharias and Co. (colloquially known as "Zac's") was a waterproof clothing manufacturing firm and retailer based at 26–27 Cornmarket Street Oxford, England.Abraham Zacharias was a silversmith, jeweller, and watchmaker/clockmaker at 2 Cornmarket and 95 High Street in Oxford. He bought 27 Cornmarket and operated a china and glass warehouse here. Later, by 1880, Abraham Zacharias' son Joel Zacharias was in charge of the business. He married Rebecca Fankenstein from Manchester on 16 August 1882. By 1884, Joel Zacharias was selling waterproof clothing on the Oxford site. He also ran a branch in Manchester. In the late 1880s, Joel Zacharias expanded the business into 26 Cornmarket next door to the south. The two shops have been combined into a single premises one since this time. By around 1896 Joel Zacharias stopped selling china and glass to concentrate on the waterproof clothing business for which Zacharias and Co. became well-known. Joel Zacharias died in 1905 and the business was taken over by Henry Osborn King of Wolvercote. Henry King's son Cecil King later inherited the business. The original name Zacharias was retained until the business finally closed in 1983. The slogan "Zac's for Macs" was used by the business.The site of 26–27 Cornmarket Street subsequently housed a Laura Ashley shop. The building dates from the 15th century. It was completely dismantled and reconstructed closer to its original form. The building is owned by Jesus College, Oxford. The site now houses a Pret a Manger sandwich shop.

Buildings of Jesus College, Oxford
Buildings of Jesus College, Oxford

The main buildings of Jesus College, one of the colleges of the University of Oxford, are located in the centre of the city of Oxford, England, between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street, and Market Street. Jesus College was founded in 1571 by Elizabeth I caused by the petition of a Welsh clergyman, Hugh Price, who was treasurer of St David's Cathedral. Her foundation charter gave to the college the land and buildings of White Hall, a university hall that had experienced a decline in student numbers. Price added new buildings to those of White Hall, and construction work continued after his death in 1574. The first of the college's quadrangles, which includes the hall, chapel, and principal's lodgings was completed between 1621 and 1630. Construction of the second quadrangle began in the 1630s, but was interrupted by the English Civil War and was not completed until about 1712. Further buildings were erected in a third quadrangle during the 20th century, including science laboratories (now closed), a library for undergraduates, and additional accommodation for students and fellows. In addition to the main site, the college owns flats in east and north Oxford, and a sports ground. The chapel, which was dedicated in 1621 and extended in 1636, was extensively altered in 1864 under the supervision of the architect George Edmund Street. The alterations have had their supporters and their critics; one historian of the college (Ernest Hardy, principal from 1921 to 1925) described the work as "ill-considered". The hall's original hammerbeam roof was hidden by a plaster ceiling in 1741 when rooms were installed in the roof space. The principal's lodgings, the last part of the first quadrangle to be constructed, contain wooden panelling from the early 17th century. The Fellows' Library in the second quadrangle dates from 1679 and contains 11,000 antiquarian books; it was restored at a cost of £700,000 in 2007. A new Junior Common Room, about twice the size of its predecessor, was completed in the third quadrangle in 2002. Further student and teaching rooms were added in Ship Street, opposite the college, in 2010. Eleven parts of the college are listed buildings, including all four sides of the first and second quadrangles. Nine parts, including the chapel, hall, and principal's lodgings, have the highest Grade I designation, given to buildings of exceptional interest. Two other parts (an external wall and an early 20th-century addition in the third quadrangle) have a Grade II designation, given to buildings of national importance and special interest. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the first quadrangle as "small and pretty", and said that the reredos behind the chapel altar was "heavily gorgeous"; he was, however, critical of the Old Members' Building in the third quadrangle, opened in 1971, describing it as a "mannered and modish design". The historian John Julius Norwich said that the first quadrangle had "a curious charm", while the second quadrangle had "a strong feeling of unity owing to the somewhat relentless succession of ogival gables". The poet Sir John Betjeman said that the clear planning of the first and second quadrangles, coupled with the relationship of their size to the heights of the buildings around them, "make what would be undistinguished buildings judged on their detail, into something distinguished". However, he regarded the early 20th-century additions in the third quadrangle as "dull".

Jesus College, Oxford
Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street. The college was founded by Queen Elizabeth I of England on 27 June 1571. A major driving force behind the establishment of the college was Hugh Price (or Ap Rhys), a churchman from Brecon in Wales. The oldest buildings, in the first quadrangle, date from the 16th and early 17th centuries; a second quadrangle was added between about 1640 and about 1713, and a third quadrangle was built in about 1906. Further accommodation was built on the main site to mark the 400th anniversary of the college, in 1971, and student flats have been constructed at sites in north and east Oxford. A fourth quadrangle was completed in 2021. There are about 475 students at any one time; the Principal of the college is Sir Nigel Shadbolt. Former students include Harold Wilson (who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia), Norman Washington Manley (Prime Minister of Jamaica), T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Angus Buchanan (winner of the Victoria Cross), Viscount Sankey (Lord Chancellor), Edwin Yoder (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist), Roger Parry (media and technology entrepreneur) and over 30 Members of Parliament. Past or present fellows of the college include the historians Sir Goronwy Edwards, Yuval Noah Harari and Niall Ferguson, the philosopher Galen Strawson, and the political philosopher John Gray. Past students and fellows in the sciences include John Houghton (physicist) and Nobel Laureate Peter J. Ratcliffe.