‘ZACS for Macs’ became a well-known advertising slogan in Oxford.

Zacharias & Co used it widely, in newspapers, on posters and on bus adverts, to publicise its waterproof clothing business.

The name Zacharias was synonymous with Cornmarket Street for more than 120 years.

Abraham Zacharias traded as a silversmith, jeweller, and watch and clock maker at 2 Cornmarket Street, near Carfax, in the 1850s.

He set up his son Joel in business in the 1870s as a china and glass dealer at No 27, on the corner of Ship Street.

In the late 1880s, the business expanded into No 26, and started selling outdoor clothing.

The sale of china and glass eventually ended, leaving clothing as the main trade.

When Joel Zacharias died early in the 20th century, the business was taken over by Henry Osborn King, a Wolvercote farmer.

Henry kept the name Zacharias for the shop and when he died in 1954, his sons Henry, William, James and Cecil took over as directors.

The business continued to thrive, but in 1983, due to ill health and rising rents and rates, Cecil, then 79 and the last surviving son, decided to sell to a Manchester firm of garment makers.

However, by the time the sale went through, the buyers had been taken over themselves by a London property company, which closed the shop.

The ancient timber-framed building which Zacharias occupied is one of Oxford’s oldest, dating from the 14th or 15th centuries.

According to Witney historian Derek Honey, author of Oxford Beyond the University, it became the New Inn and later the Blue Anchor.

Oxford diarist Anthony Wood recorded seeing a play staged at the Blue Anchor and spending 1s 8d on food and drink.

In the 18th century, it became a major coaching inn.

When the Oxford-Bath stagecoach was preparing to leave the city every Monday, innkeeper Ralph Bennett always dressed in a frock coat and three-cornered hat and gave every passenger a glass of port to fortify them for the journey.

Morrell’s Brewery bought the pub in 1839 and renamed it the Anchor.

Other parts of the building were leased to other tenants, including Zacharias, until, in 1881, the whole block was bought by Jesus College.

After Zacharias closed, the college spent £500,000 restoring the Grade II-listed building.

It remains a prominent feature of Cornmarket Street and is now occupied by a mobile phone company and the Pret A Manger sandwich shop.

  • As we recalled (Memory Lane, May 11, last year), Henry Osborn King was a Wolvercote farmer and hay dealer, who always wrote latters to his customers in rhyme.

He and his wife Amelia had 10 children, all of whom were given their grandmother’s surname Osborn as their middle name.