What was that?
A guide to some of Jericho's distinctive buildings. For other articles, see the menu to the right.
No. 6 King Street
Text and illustration by Jenny Barsley
The earliest mention we can find of this building is from 1871 when a Mr Soden had a chimney-sweeping business here. Later from 1889-97 the building was owned by a builder named J. Baker. He then sold it to Mick Tysall who kept horses and used No. 6 as a repair workshop for early motor cars.
In 1910 it was taken over by the Faulkner brothers who started a bicycle business (surprisingly, also selling fruit and vegetables). The grandson of one of these men, Mr Bill Faulkner, took over after his grandfather’s death and continued the bicycle business, combining this with motorcycles, using 55 Walton Street as a shop frontage. He tells me that he used to keep old penny-farthing bikes upstairs above his workshops and still has one at his home at Church Hanborough.
In 1983 Faulkners moved to Botley Road. The shop at the front was sold to what is now Cycle King and No. 6 was sold to furniture designer Lucinda Leech, who made the distinctive modern frontage. Later the building was occupied Mr Robert Clark, an antiquarian bookseller.
On his death the first floor was occupied by the Chesterton Institute Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture. Named after the writer and journalist G.K. Chesterton, this is the Oxford branch of a charity that organizes publications and conferences on Christian Humanism.
The ground floor space was to Family Publications, a publisher and distributor of Catholic books. From May 2008, the ground floor will be occupied by a new gallery, Art Jericho.
