What was that?
A guide to some of Jericho's distinctive buildings. For other articles, see the menu to the right.
No. 35 Albert Street
Text and illustration by Jenny Barsley
This artists’ studio was built in 1840 as a school for Wesleyan boys, and was connected with the nearby chapel in Cranham Street (now a Green College laboratory). The house at the corner with Cranham Street was occupied by the headmaster. The 1847 Education Act declared, however, that boys and girls had to be educated together. Since the building was too small to take more pupils it had to close as a school.
It was then taken over by a coal merchant who kept his horses in the lower part and his stock in the upper part. The building still has the hook used to hoist the bags up and down. In 1917 one wall began to collapse and the building had to be shored up with girders and railway sleepers.
The next occupant was an upholsterer, until in the 1950s Faulkners (currently in the Botley Road) bought it to use as a motorcycle workshop. But local people complained about the noise from the machines and the Council refused to let them continue using it for this purpose. Then it was bought by the writer and artist, Tinker Mather who lives in Allam Street and who engaged Ian Miller to redesign the interior.
