Patrick Comerford
When I was visiting hospitals and clinics in Oxford recent weeks, I mused on the name of Port Mahon on St Clement’s Street, but also on the name of some of the neighbouring pubs with curious names that I noticed on those return journeys, including the Cape of Good Hope, at the corner of the Plain, where Cowley Road meets St Clement;s Street and Headington Road, and the Oranges and Lemons – which seems such an appropriate name for St Clement’s.
I promised myself that once I was back on my feet fully again I would continue my explorations and find out about those curious pub names.
So, at lunchtime yesterday, I was back in Oxford, and decided to have another look at the Oranges & Lemons at 30 St Clement’s Street.
It describes itself as a ‘quintessential traditional pub in Oxford’ that prides itself ‘on offering great food and excellent service’ and that ‘promises a delightful experience’ with ‘an array of pub classics and seasonal daily specials’.
But the Oranges & Lemons is anything but an ordinary pub on the fringes of the city centre. Apart from having an apt name for an area known as St Clements, it has a three-storey façade that has been painted brightly to full-height with an eye-catching and colourful collection of lemons and oranges, and the theme is carried into the name sign on the street frontage.
A large old photograph of punks and other drinkers outside the old Oranges & Lemons is still on the wall of the main bar. The photograph was taken in 1979, when it was a lively music venue frequented by punks and attracting acts such as Billy Idol of Generation X. According to the Oxford Handbook in 1980, ‘the atmosphere is wonderful. Have a chat with the tramp warming himself by the coal fire. Gaze at the punks with hair all colours of the spectrum.’
The Morgan Pub Collective also runs the Grapes in George Street and took over the Angel and Greyhound in St Clement’s last year. It reopened the pub six month ago [12 February] after a refurbishment that saw it revert to a previous name, the Oranges & Lemons. During those works over a six-week period, the contractors stayed across the street at another traditional pub, the Old Black Horse Inn.
The change of ownership, the refurbishment and the restoration of the former name all came as a surprise to people in the St Clement’s area. The pub was known as the Burton Ale Stores from 1920 on, and then was known as the Oranges & Lemons from 1970 until the mid-1980s. After that, it became a cocktail bar called Parker’s in the 1980s.
When Young’s acquired it in 1991, it was renamed the Angel & Greyhound, a name that came from a former coaching inn, the Angel and the Greyhound on Oxford’s High Street, that once stabled horses in a field behind the old pub in St Clement’s.
Young’s was once a brewery but is now only a pub chain with over 270 pubs, including three in Oxford: the King’s Arms, close to Hertford College, St Aldates Tavern, opposite the town hall and museum, and the Plough Inn on the corner of Cornmarket Street and Saint Michael’s Street.
When the Angel & Greyhound became the Oranges & Lemons once again, it was the second pub in St Clement’s to change management in a short span of time, following Port Mahon a few months earlier.
Dick Morgan, the founder of the Morgan Pub Collective, had already made a success of the Grapes, which reopened in George Street in August 2023, and of the Gardeners Arms in North Parade Avenue. However, the Gardeners Arms closed earlier this year, and the lease was returned to Greene King.
Morgan pubs are also known for their food, décor and vinyl music from record players. But the name Oranges & Lemons comes from a traditional nursery rhyme and singing game that includes the lines,
Oranges and Lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s
You owe me five farthings, say the bells of St Martin’s.
The lines refer not to Oxford but to the bells of Saint Clement Danes Church in London among several other churches, and the tune is listed as No 13190 in the Roud Folk Song Index, a database of around 250,000 references to almost 25,000 songs. The earliest known version appeared in print ca 1744. The bells of Saint Clement Danes ring out the tune four times a day, at 9 am, noon, 3 pm and 6 pm.
St Clement’s Street in Oxford is often known simply as St Clement’s, and it was originally the main road between Oxford and London. The street links the Plain near Magdalen Bridge beside Magdalen College with London Place at the foot of Headington Hill at the junction with Marston Road to the north.
The street is known for its small shops and restaurants and the street and church give their name to St Clement’s district on the east bank of the River Cherwell. This is a small triangular area from the roundabout known as the Plain, bounded by the River Cherwell to the north, Cowley Road to the south, and the foot of Headington Hill to the east.
The population of the area is a multicultural and socially diverse, from owner occupiers, student accommodation and homes in multiple occupation to social housing. A number of buildings belong to the Charity of Thomas Dawson or the Dawson Trust, founded in 1521 to provide income for the benefit of the people of St Clement’s and the parish church.
The Plain received its name after the parish church of Saint Clement’s, which stood there, was demolished around 1829 to allow a busy street junction to be reconfigured. The roundabout is the site of the former churchyard.
But more about Saint Clement’s Church, old and new, and that roundabout at the Plain on another day, hopefully.
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