Merton Street
Examination School / Ruskin School of Art | |
Other | |
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Known for |
Merton Street is a
Location
The street is designated the A420 due to the blockage of the High Street to normal traffic. To the west it continues through Oriel Square, where Oriel College is located.[citation needed]
Despite being cobbled, the street has been repaired by Oxford City Council using asphalt.[3]
History
The part of modern-day Merton Street adjoining the High Street used to be known as Coach & Horses Lane, named after a public house on the west side of the lane.[2] From the early 18th to the late 19th century, it became known as King Street.
The rest of the street (the part running east–west) was originally known as St John Baptist's Street, named after the church which is now Merton College's chapel. In 1751, the whole street had become King Street, but by 1772 just the east–west part was called Merton Street. The entire street became known as Merton Street only in the 20th century.
Notable residents
Siegfried Sassoon briefly took rooms in no 14 during 1919, on the recommendation of Lady Ottoline Morrell.[4] The historian Michael Brock (1920–2014) and his wife (and co-editor) Eleanor lived in the street in the early 1950s.[5] The academic and author J. R. R. Tolkien had rooms in Merton Street towards the end of his life in the early 1970s.
Gallery
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Looking down Merton Street, at the corner withMerton College.
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Looking east along Merton Street from the south side at the junction with Magpie Lane.
References
- ISBN 0-333-39917-X.
- ^ a b Merton Street, High Street, Oxford.
- ^ Heard, Dan (27 March 2010). "Repairs 'messing up' historic city street". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ISBN 0715633244p33
- ^ "Eminent dean and scholar whose historical work is published soon". Oxford Mail. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
External links
- Media related to Merton Street, Oxford at Wikimedia Commons