Turl Street is a historic street in central

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, England.

Location

The street is located in the city centre, linking Broad Street at the north and

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

at the south. It intersects with Brasenose Lane to the east, and Market Street and Ship Street to the west. These streets link Turl Street to the busy Cornmarket, and to the iconic

Radcliffe Square Radcliffe Square is a square in central Oxford, England. It is surrounded by historic Oxford University and college buildings. The square is cobbled, laid to grass surrounded by railings in the centre, and is pedestrianised except for access. T ...

. It is colloquially known as The Turl and is home to three of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

's historic colleges:

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, Lincoln and

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. It meets the High Street by the early 18th century All Saints church, which has been Lincoln College's library since the 1970s.

History

Turl Street was called St Mildred's Street in 1363, but was known as Turl Gate Street by the mid-17th century. It acquired this name from a twirling gate (demolished in 1722) which was in a

postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often placed in concealed locations, allowing inconspicuous entrance and exit. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a s ...

in the city wall. The part to the south of Ship Street was known as Lincoln College Lane in 1751. Originally the Turl came to an abrupt halt at its junction with Ship Street, where it reached the city wall and the twirling gate. By 1551, it was extended by a path (known as "The path leading from the Hole in the Wall") to reach what is now Broad Street, and in 1722 the gate was removed altogether. The Turl has been closed to traffic (except for access) since 1985. A rising

bollard A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats. In modern usage, it also refers to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to pre ...

, installed by the

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, cuts it off in the middle.

Commerce

As well as the three Turl Street colleges, the street houses several shops, including an

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bookshop, one jewellery shop, a café, a stationery shop (Scriptum Fine Stationery), a whisky shop, a wine shop and the traditional gentleman's tailors, Walters of Oxford. From about 1900 to 2016 No.6 was the sole retail outlet shop of bespoke handmade shoemakers Ducker and Son. Ducker's ladies department operated from No.13 in post-war years. Duckers shoes were posted to customers worldwide, having been made on personal foot lasts. 16 Turl Street was the site of one of the first Indian restaurants in England outside London, opened in 1937 by an Indian-born law student; Bir Bahadur, who having established an Indian restaurant in London (The Kohinoor in Roper Street), moved to Oxford and opened his second. The exotic decorations of the restaurant were recalled by

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...

, who was a regular diner, in his diaries The Taj Mahal closed in 1992. The building then went on to be a number of different restaurants, before becoming the QI Building ("QI Oxford") (associated with the Quite Interesting television series), a private members club, in the autumn of 2004. In May 2007 the building was purchased by Curious Group, who enlarged the venue to include a former

Millets Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics ...

shop next door at no. 17 and renamed it Corner Club. Corner Club closed in December 2009 after failing to agree a new lease with the building owner;

. From 2011, 16-17 was occupied by the Hub, a centre for Oxford student volunteers, and the Turl Street Kitchen. Profits from Turl Street Kitchen funded the Hub, located in the rooms above the restaurant. Turl Street Kitchen later closed and the Hub relocated to Little Clarendon Street. The Turl Street colleges also have student housing above and around many of these shops.

Miscellaneous

Turl Street is the subject of an obscure

ecclesiastical {{Short pages monitor History of Oxford Jesus College, Oxford Lincoln College, Oxford Exeter College, Oxford