History
The name of this street was recorded as Kattestreete in the early 13th century, as Mousecatchers' Lane (Vicus Murilegorum) in 1442, and as Cat Street in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century it became Catherine Street. However, there was another street of this name in east Oxford and in 1930 the City Council changed the name to Catte Street, using a 15th-century spelling.
Originally this street road used to lead northwards as far as New College Lane, where the city wall blocked its way. The road north from here has become part of Catte Street, although the Modern History Faculty still gives its address as Broad Street nearby.
In the mid-13th century the illuminator William de Brailes owned property, and presumably had his workshop, next to St Mary's.
The street was pedestrianised as a pavement at the south by the junction with the High Street in 1973.
Read more about this topic: Catte Street
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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