Holywell Music Room

HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM, 34, HOLYWELL STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1047232
Date first listed:
12-Jan-1954
List Entry Name:
Holywell Music Room
Statutory Address:
HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM, 34, HOLYWELL STREET
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Location

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Date:
2002-03-07
Reference:
IOE01/00307/18
Rights:
© Ms Helen Green. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1047232
Date first listed:
12-Jan-1954
List Entry Name:
Holywell Music Room
Statutory Address 1:
HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM, 34, HOLYWELL STREET

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM, 34, HOLYWELL STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Oxfordshire
District:
Oxford (District Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
SP 51644 06554

Details

HOLYWELL STREET 1. 1485 (North Side) No 34 (Holywell Music Room) SP 5106 NE 6/195 12.1.54. II* GV 2. Begun in 1742 to the design of Rev Dr Thomas Camplin, Vice Principal of St Edmund Hall and Archdeacon of Taunton, and opened in 1748 at the cost of £1,263 lOs Od. 1-storeyed rubble 65 ft x 32 ft x 30 ft high with an apselike North end and a Welsh slate roof. The South front is stuccoed brick, lies back from the street about 38 ft and has a projecting rectangular shaped ground floor with 2 semi-circular arched windows and a stone band and a moulded cornice; the 1st floor has 3 C18 sash windows in moulded pediment in which is a blind circular lunette. On the East side there are 3 semi-circular arched windows. History. Probably one of the earliest buildings in Europe erected specially for musical performances. (See Peshall's Edition of Wood's Ancient and Present State of City of Oxford (1773), 247-8 0xf Hist Soc XV (1889), 247-8; Proc Oxf Architect and Hist Soc V, 208; for drawing of exterior made by J C Buckler in 1812, p Bodl M S Don a 3 II, 85.

All the listed buildings on the North Side form a group.

Listing NGR: SP5164406554

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
245575
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Wood, , Ancient and Present State of City of Oxford, (1773), 247-248
Proceedings of Oxford Architecture and History Society in Proceedings of Oxford Architecture and History Society, Vol. 5, (), 208
Oxford History Society in Oxford History Society, Vol. 15, (1889), 247-248

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Holywell Music Room

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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