3-101-128 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Oxford Market, c1880. Covered market in London. '"Oxford Market was built about 1724, but not opened till 1732 (Allen's London, iii., 25). In Strype's Stow (1754) it is said to be "not much resorted to at present", a condition in which it seems to have remained till its demolition in 1880. Dr Johnson at one time lived at No. 6 in this same street, then on the verge of London towards the north.' Description by Alfred Marks. Although open markets were once considered indispensable to the poor and to traders who could not afford large rents, by the latter part of the nineteenth century a notable number had closed. Most disappeared through the pressure of re-development though this had been noted as early as 1869 by a Guildhall committee. Oxford Market, situated to the north of Oxford Street, on the west side of Great Titchfield Street (the photograph shows the Market House from the corner of Castle Street), was, according to Marks, demolished shortly after the photograph was taken. A block of flats was built on the site.