THE new Woolworth’s store, opened in Cornmarket Street, Oxford, in 1957, might never have been built had proper studies been done on the building it replaced.

We recalled (Memory Lane, November 16 last year) Woolworth’s had fought a long battle with the planning authorities to replace the former Clarendon Hotel.

The hotel had closed in 1939 – the Oxford Press Ball was its last function – and was used by various Government departments during and after the Second World War.

Woolworth’s, then trading across the road on the site now occupied by Boots, bought the hotel and drew up plans to redevelop the site with a larger store.

The city council, backed by Oxford University, refused planning permission, fearing that more shoppers and traffic would make life in the city centre even more intolerable.

But Woolworth’s appealed and Harold Macmillan, then minister of housing and local government, later to become Prime Minister and Chancellor of Oxford University, reversed the city council’s decision.

The hotel, once one of Oxford’s finest, was razed to the ground and the new store opened on Friday, October 18, 1957.

But author David Sturdy, in his book, Historic Oxford, says that what was thought to be a shabby Georgian hotel turned out to be an historic building.

Most of it dated from about 1550, with some parts as old as 1300 and 1100.

He argued that if these details had been known, the hotel could have been saved.

He wrote: “But none of the city councillors opposed to the development, and none of their supporters among the dons, had bothered to examine the hotel and note obvious signs of age.”

Dr WA Pantin, tutor in medieval history at Oriel College, said in 1958: “Outwardly, the Clarendon seemed just a pleasant but rather undistinguished late Georgian building, so it could be argued at the time of the discussions and inquiry about its demolition that it was not a building of historic or artistic importance.”

He recorded the historic fabric of the old hotel as it was being pulled down.

Apart from a few museum pieces, his record is all that remains of a once historic landmark in the heart of Oxford.