71 London Road
The modern extended frontage on the ground floor of No. 71 and the adjoining office at No. 71A now conceal the original double-gabled house behind, which was built in c.1926 and was Walker's furniture shop from
This building (both sides) was Walker's furniture shop from c.1926 to c.1990.
Charles Walker was born in Oxford on 21 February 1884, and when he married Edith Maria Franklin at St Aldate's Church on 15 July 1909 he was a house carpenter. At the time of the 1921 census he was still a carpenter working for Wooldridge & Simpson and living at 4 Park End Street with his wife and his daughters Sylvia (11) and Stella (4); their youngest daughter Gwendoline was born on 13 June 1921, just after the census was taken.
In about 1926 the family moved to the newly-built 71 London Road, and opened a furniture shop on the ground floor. He is first listed as a furniture dealer on the London Road in Kelly's Directory for 1927.
The furniture trade in Headington would have been booming at this time, as Headington was about to be absorbed as a suburb of Oxford and was being heavily developed: three nearby roads were built up in the late 1920s (Osler Road, Old High Street, and Kennett Road), as well two council estates (Gipsy Lane and the London Road/Barton Road).
In 1929 Kelly’s Directory listed: “Walker’s Furnishing Stores (Charles Walker), house furnishers, London road. Tel. No. Headington 6880.” The 1930 directory confirms that this was the above shop, then an unnumbered new building listed between Nos. 9 and 11.
Right: Advertisement from
Kelly’s Directory of 1933
The London Road was drastically renumbered in 1934, and Walker's premises were then allocated the number 71.
The 1939 Register shows Charles Walker, described as a dealer in household furniture, living over his shop at 71 London Road with his wife Edith and their youngest daughter Gwendoline Walker who was described as a saleswoman in baby linen and baby carriages.
This advertisement (left) from Kelly’s Directory of 1947 shows that Walker’s baby and children’s department was then in a separate shop at 65 London Road (now the Little Four Seasons restaurant).
By the 1960s, the shop was managed by Ben Pullin, who had married Walker's older daughter Sylvia in 1933, while Sylvia Pullin ran the Walker’s pram and baby shop and her sister Gwen ran a grocer’s shop on the London Road with her husband Harold Griffin.
Walker himself continued to live over his old shop until the 1970s, and the business that Walker had founded in 1929 continued in the same premises after his death at the age of 89 in 1973. In 1975 Messrs Walkers of Headington were granted planning permission to demolish the buildings at the rear and extend the existing shop (75/00991/A_H).
An advertisement in the Yellow Pages for 1984 reads: “Walkers of Headington Home Furnishers, Furniture & Beds Plus, Fitted kitchen studio, Hotpoint Centre, Fitted carpets, Gifts & Lighting”.
Walker’s of Headington was last listed at 71 London Road in the telephone directory of 1990, and from 1991 it was listed at 33 Lime Walk. The shop at 71 London Road was split in two at around this time.
In the 1990s the main building was occupied by a furniture firm called Pine Dreams.
In 2001 Pronuptia moved to the left-hand section of this shop from its former premises in New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford. The photograph below of August 2007 shows its closing-down sale advertised in the window:
On 22 October 2007 Starbucks opened in No. 71, and the picture below shows it just before it opened, with the washing line of the tenants in the upstairs flat above its sign. Starbucks closed in mid-May 2025.
In 2015 Private Eye magazine revealed that the freehold of this building at 71/71A had been bought for £460,000 on 29 August 2013 by the Singapore company BM Gold Mountain International (ON143652).
The freehold of 71 & 71A London Road was sold for £665,000 on 25 August 2017: advertisement
71A London Road
These premises were originally part of Walker's Furniture, but were occupied separately by Oxford Video from the late 1980s until at least 1993.
The ground floor of 71A with the whole of the upper floor of both 71 and 71A were let out on a 999-year lease with a peppercorn rent from 25 December 1990 (according to Singer Vielle).
By the early 2000s No. 71A was occupied by the book publishers/imaging art studio "Project X" (right). In 2004 Limelight Advertising (with the permission of the owner) erected the present advertising board outside their shop: retrospective planning permission was for this was refused in 2005 but granted on appeal.
The office was then occupied by C.A.R.E.
The office at 71A London Road was listed as a vacant B1 (office) property in the city council's response in April 2014 to this Freedom of Information request, and it appeared to remain empty for over ten years.
Nos. 70/71A were sold off in 2017. This advertisement confirmed that 71A was still leased at a peppercorn rent.
On 24 February 2025 Templeton LPA of Cardiff posted a “7-day Notice” on the door of No. 71A, stating: “Any person wishing to gain access to this property for the removal of personal belongings must contact the agents within 7 days of this notice. All items remaining after this notice has expired will be disposed of.” In June 2025 the shop had some extensive repairs.
The flat above 70 & 71A
The address 71A London also includes the four-bedroomed flat upstairs (which is reached via the alley to the left). This was sold for £50,800 in September 1995, and was valued at £247,000 in July 2023. It was granted an HMO Additional Licence for one year on 29 August 2023.
