Grandpont House sits on stone arches over a water channel off the River Thames near Folly Bridge. It was built in 1785 for Sir William Elias Taunton (1744–1825). He was the City Solicitor, became Town Clerk of Oxford in 1794, and was knighted in 1814. The Tauntons were a large and important Oxford family; several of William's grandsons are buried in St Sepulchre's cemetery in Jericho and you can read more about the family on the cemetery's excellent website.
- There are pictures of Sir William Taunton on the National Portrait Gallery's website.
Jackson's Oxford Journal, 27 June 1807.
Taunton put Grandpont House on the market in 1807. In the 1850s and '60s it was lived in by Thomas Randall (1805-1887), a prominent Oxford tailor who may have been the inspiration for the Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- Read more about Randall and the house in this piece written by historian Mark J Davies, an expert on Oxford's waterways and on Alice's connections with them.
- There is more biographical information on Thomas Randall and his family on Stephanie Jenkins's Oxford History website.
In the early 1870s Grandpont House was occupied by Queen Victoria's son Prince Leopold, whilst he was an undergraduate at Christ Church.
- For further information on the history of the house and its current use see Grandpont House's website.
- For a walk around this area see Malcolm Graham, On Foot from the High to Trill Mill (Oxford Preservation Trust, 2020), pp.89-96.