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The East Oxford Constitutional Hall appeared in Kelly's directories at No 106 from 1890, (or rather it only became No 106 in 1893 when the Cowley Road was completely renumbered), soon being joined by the Free Reading Room and the East Oxford Conservative Club, and joined in 1903 by the Empire Theatre, next called the Oxford Theatre and the Oxford Hippodrome (1911), and then the Palace Picture House (a cinema) from 1913 to 1937.
The building was constructed in 1898 as a public hall, library and three shops <ref>http://www.ethicalproperty.co.uk/our-centres/oxford/the-old-music-hall</ref>.According to Malcolm Graham in "On Foot In Oxford No.12 East Oxford" (1987) it was built 1889-90 (architect H W Moore). It was financed by G H Morrell, the Oxford brewer and owner of Headington Hill Hall (now part of Oxford Brooles University). The City's ruling Liberals saw the scheme as a conspiracy to improve the Tories' local standing, and, when Morrell offered the reading room as a City branch library, rejected it because "Neither Liberal nor Conservative can much like to repair to the headquarters of his enemies to read his morning paper".
An article in the Oxford Mail claims that