brickwalls

I can't locate the house yet... but the church is St Philip and St James, Woodstock Road, Oxford, designed by G.E. Street. So the houses must be somewhere around Banbury Road to the south-east of the church. Maybe Norham Gardens, Winchester Road, Bradmore Road. I've tried looking through these streets on google earth but can't find it yet.

Thank you Andy for helping us collect more information about this image!

Andy's comment already hit the mark, this is No. 54 Banbury Road, North Oxford, named "Laleham" at that time, seen from south east. Built in 1866 by John Gibbs. A front view of Laleham House is also available in this album. Provided both photographs were taken at the same occasion, this view could be supposed to be made between 1870 and 1872. This was the time when the family of literary scholar Thomas Arnold the Younger lived here. Mr. Arnold offered tutorials for Oxford Undergraduates and provided his pupils with accomodation in Laleham House. After his fateful decision to (re)convert to Catholicism in 1876, Mr. Arnold gave up tutoring and the house was sold to a group of evangelic clergymen, eventually becoming the main building of Wycliffe Hall, today the 5th Permanent Private Hall in the University of Oxford. In the 1880s, it was considerably extended with south & north wings (slightly different in style & brick color), thus, you won't have a view on St. Philip and St. James from here anymore. H. W. Taunt took a photograph from a similar viewpoint in 1903 which may be worth to compare. The next house in the background is No. 56, "Wykeham" where Queen Victoria's son Prince Leopold resided at that time during his undergraduate term at Christ Church. The next two gables are those of No. 58, "Norham House", and finally the last house in the background is No. 60, "Shrublands", also imaged in this album. Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - A. Saint: Three Oxford Architects (Oxoniensia) - Historic England Archive, Red Box Collection - English Wikipedia article "Wycliffe Hall" - M. Trevor - The Arnolds (C. Scribner's Sons)

Funny thing is (with old images like this), every single person here, had a life that mattered. (one way or another) The royalty had that great responsibility of ruling.

No. 31, Banbury Road, North Oxford, seen from east. Built in 1866, architect: William Wilkinson Named 'The Firs', this building is illustrated in Mr. Wilkinson's book "English Country Houses" (Plates XIII and XIV). Decades later (before 1953, exact date unknown), The Firs was aquired by St. Anne's Society (formerly Society of Oxford Home-Students) in order to extend accommodation capabilities of Springfield St. Mary which was originally established by Anglican nuns at No. 33 Banbury Road (partially visible on the right, also imaged here and here in this album). After receiving college status in 1952, and stimulated by generous fundings from Wolfson and Rayne Foundations, St. Anne's developed ambitious plans for new accommodation buildings, a total of 6 blocks of which only 2 were finally realized. No. 31 Banbury Road had to make way for the second one, Rayne Building and was demolished in 1966. Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - Internet Archive (archive.org) for "English Country Houses" - Historic England Archive, Red Box Collection, Photographs by Peter Spencer Spokes - History of the Nettleship Library (VI): A String of Pearls, found at St. Anne's College's web site.