113 London Road
This shop was the fourth of the sixteen houses of Westbourne Terrace, built between Old High Street and Bury Knowle Park in the 1890s. In the 1920s the address of this house was 35 London Road, but it was renumbered 113 in 1933.
At the time of the 1901 census William Coppock (37), a rate collector, and his wife Annabella, lived here.
In 1911 the house, recorded as 4 Westbourne Terrace, was occupied by Owen Stimpson (26), a shoeing & general smith, and his wife Matilda (28).
The 1921 census shows Sidney H. Cox (33), who worked as a chauffeur for Mr Macintosh at Holywell House in Mansifleld Road, living here with his wife Maud and their three children.
By 1926 Henry John Langham had moved to this house at No. 113 from 121 London Road at the eastern end of Westbourne Terrace, and he remained here until his death in April 1943. His widow Mrs Constance Charlotte Langham continued to be listed at this house until the 1960s.
Above: Westbourne Terrace in 1916, when it was a row of private houses
Below: in the mid-1930s, when half the terrace had been turned into shops
The first use of the house at No. 113 as a commercial property was not until 1970, when it became the Headington branch of Baxter’s Butchers. This firm remained in the shop until the 1980s.
In about 1984 the shop became a delicatessen called the Chef’s Pantry. In 1992 their planning application for “Change of use from class A1 retail to Class A3 café and fish and chip take-away” was dismissed on appeal (92/00008/NF). None the less the shop developed the fast-food side of its business until it closed in 2004.
In 2004 an application for a “Certificate of Lawfulness – Existing Use: Application to certify that the authorised use of the premises for the sale of fast food and as a delicatessen (Class A3) is lawful” (04/00942/CEU) was refused because:
The use of the premises as a delicatessen as detailed by records held by the Oxford City Council Environmental Health Department indicate that the use of the property during the last ten years falls within A1 shops Class 1 and not A3 food and drink, of the Use Classes Order 1987.
Later in 2004 it became La Plaza delicatessen and café.
In May 2008 it was renamed the Copacabana Café and started putting tables out on the pavement; but in September 2008 it closed down. It reopened as the Caffe Toscano in November 2008..
The shop was empty from October 2011 to August 2012, when the Caffe Corsica (pizza) opened here. That closed in January 2013.
Oxford Designer Blinds opened here in late 2014 and closed within a year.
The Finders Keepers Letting Agency was able to open here on 1 December 2015 following new legislation. They moved across the road in July 2019.
Since mid-2021 it has been the Lemon Garden café.
