'Oxford Candy Store at 9 Littlegate Street was the first premises used by Balliol Boys' Club when it opened on 7 February 1907. On the right was a second shop heavily boarded to the ceiling,lighted with flaring gas-jets and known as the 'Bashing room.' A fast and extremely noisy species of football prevailed there and provided an admirable way of letting off steam.
To the left a second door led to a drab canteen and a rickety stair. Above was a tiny office, illuminated by one candle, a front room, later turned into a chapel, and a small room used for draughts, really a passage leading through a sliding fireproof door to the gym.
This had once been the workshop of the sweet factory and the walls still lined with slate-topped benches. On the second floor were two small rooms used as a library and for quiet games, debates, or rehearsals, and a long attic used as a shooting
range. The illumination was again a single candle, sometimes mistaken, not without intention, for the target,'
Description by Hubert
Secretan in 1911, from A short History of Balliol Boys Club.
In the 1820s. Holy Trinity parish was established from the southern part of St Ebbe's parish in 1845. In 1823, the property was sold to William Fisher, a builder of Oxford, for £1.810 at which time it was described as: 'This estate. .. consists of
stone built sashed and. slated dwelling house, containing a good entrance hall and staircase, three good sitting rooms, with capital kitchen an the ground floor; six servant rooms on the attic storey, with convenient closets and good cellaring; detached are a laundry, brew and washhouse, large roomy coachhouse and stabling with lofts and all requisite conveniences, together with two large gardens and orchard abundantly planted with fine fruit trees and whole comprising about an acre of land enclosed by a lofty stone wall and bounded by the river... '
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