The 8th Oxford Scout Group was founded in 1910 and has always been based at its current HQ building in Perrin Street.
Did you know that the HQ building was originally a chapel?
In the 1850s & 60s, the nearest church for the villagers of New Headington was St Andrew’s in Old Headington, which meant a long walk, especially for the elderly. To encourage church attendance, a chapel of ease was built in Perrin Street (formerly Church Street) in 1870. The Oxford Chronicle for 22 October 1870 has the following report: New Headington is almost a suburb of Oxford, yet since it has been built – (for the most part of it some fifteen years, or thereabouts) — it has never had a place of public worship… The effect upon a poor population, as may be easily imagined, has been injurious. Through the exertions of the present curate, the Rev. L. S. Tuckwell of Magdalen College, and others, an effort has been made to erect a small church, which will be available for regular and stated worship, and possibly for weekday lectures sometimes during the winter evenings. Their exertions have resulted in the erection of a plain brick and tiled building, about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide, with a small vestry, and an apse at the east end. It is, of course, plain and unpretentious, since money for a better building was impossible; but it has a decidedly ecclesiastical character, and is a substantial and durable edifice. A portion of the ground around it has been inclosed with a brick wall.
The chapel, built by Joseph Castle & Co. at a cost of £350, was opened by the Bishop of Oxford on 3rd November 1870 “in the octave of All Saints”, and had seating for 160 people. Although at first it was known as New Headington Chapel, it was rechristened All Saints Chapel in 1879, when it was reopened after a period of closure due to damp. (During this period, “thoughtless boys without had worked sad havoc”.)
Records of the early days of the chapel survive in Oxfordshire Archives. The attendance in a typical year is recorded as follows: Number of people present at Eucharist in the chapel in 1876 ranged from seven on 9 January to 43 on Easter Day, with total collections ranging from 3s 10d to 11s 8½d. The average amount given per head was just under sixpence.
When the new and bigger All Saints Church was built in Lime Walk in 1910, the little mission chapel closed immediately and was acquired by the Scout Group. The Revd Tuckwell, who had worked so hard to see it built, lamented in his book Old Magdalen Days (1913), Alas that this little house of prayer should have been deprived of its sacred character and degraded to the level of a Common Club Room.