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This is the page for 34 Cowley Road.

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December 2016

2016 - Present

Thy Spa is a Thai Massage centre, with another branch in Windsor.

2016

December 2016: The Eau de Vie natural health centre has just closed, and its new occupants (the Thy Spa Thai massage centre) are moving in. The top half of the building is still painted in the dark grey 'chalk paint' of the previous business. The paint was supplied by Annie Sloan, whose headquarters are opposite at 33 Cowley Road. Strangely, the new brown paint and text above the window was swiftly painted over and the building reverted to its former dark grey colour before the Thy Spa actually opened in January 2017.

1990s-2016

The Eau de Vie Natural Health Centre occupied this building from the mid 1990s until it closed in early 2016, posting this message on their website:

After 18 years at No 34 Cowley Road, Eau de Vie is now closed at this location, our last day offering treatments was Saturday 9th July 2016.

It was owned by holistic therapist Lucinda Mahoney and used by a group of self-employed massage therapists and alternative healers. Its 'floatation room' was something of a local institution, in which stressed locals could float in a dark tank full of epsom salts.

The door on the left of the building is the last trace of the separate flat which used to occupy the upstairs of the building. During Eau de Vie's time, the upstairs rooms were served by a separate electric meter.

1990s

In the mid 1990s there was a juggling and skateboarding shop here called 'Oddball Juggling Co'. 

1973 - 1990s

Thomsons Directory 1991 Inner Bookshop
Thomsons Directory 1984 No 34 EOA Books & Inner Bookshop
Kelly's Directory 1973 to 1976 No 34 EOA books.
Named after the East Oxford Advertiser, a newspaper that ran from 1970 to 1974, this was a mainly political bookshop

2015: the large treatment room overlooking Cowley Road

run by Jon Carpenter. There was a back section of spiritual books run by Anthony Cheke called the Inner Bookshop. This eventually took over the shop until it moved (early 1990s?) to Magdalen Road, where it has now been replaced by Wild Honey health food store.

1960 - 1972

Kellys Directory 1960 to 1972 No 34 Nu Homes Ltd furnishers (C V Rickett & P O Pease). They also spread to Nos 35 to 39 oppposite

1920s - 1950s

Kellys Directory 1956 to 1958 No 34 J Preston ladies & gents tailor
Kellys Directory 1920 and 1952 to 1954 No 34 Robert Howse tailor

Before then?

Cowleyroad.org is a DIY community history - help us write it!

Do you know more about this business, or remember what was at this address before? Do you have any old photographs or memories to share? Please add them to the site! Here is a how-to guide.

References

2015: the upstairs back room showing what looks like an original Victorian fireplace

2015: the downstairs treatment room behind reception