24 Great Clarendon Street

This unusual house on the corner of Hart Street and Great Clarendon Street could be one of the oldest buildings in Jericho. Its two large and distinctive windows and the door on the corner point to its origins as a shop. The original structure, with walls a foot thick, probably used to include the house next door at 34 Hart Street. At some point this was divided off, then later an extension was added instead on the Great Clarendon Street side. The original building may date from the mid-nineteenth century but the earliest record we have is from 1901 when it was a grocers' shop, Radbone and Sons. At some point it then became Bob's Cycle Shop which was also an ironmongers and sold paraffin.

After the mid-1970s, however, the shop seems to have been abandoned with just the rooms upstairs occupied by students. In 1979 in a derelict state it was bought by Peggy Smith and converted to a house. She later sold it to her son Nick who lives there with Mari Tudor-Jones. Many a curious nose has been pressed up against the large multi-paned windows downstairs - peering through the collection of plants that acts as a screen. Nick and Mari would be keen to hear from any older Jericho residents who know more about the history of this building.