brickwalls

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.

No. 60 Banbury Road, North Oxford, viewed from south west. Named "Shrublands", built in 1866 by W. Wilkinson who described this house in his book "English Country Houses" (plates XI & XII). In the 1960s, no. 60 was one of those houses threatened by plans for a new building of Pitt-Rivers Museum, which, eventually, could not be realized due to lack of funds. Since 2006, this building forms the site of Kellogg College, together with No. 62 (partly visible on the left), No. 64, the strange Balfour Building in the backyard and some other modern additions. Today it's named "Geoffrey Thomas House", after the colleges first president, and houses the college library and some office and meeting rooms. Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - E. O. Dodgson: Notes on Nos. 56, 58, 60, 62 and 64 Banbury Road (Oxoniensia) - Historic England, Architectural Red Box Collection, "Oxford, Oxon" - Internet Archive (archive.org) for "English Country Houses" - Brochure "A short history of Kellogg College", found at kellogg.ox.ac.uk

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Lost American Architecture, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Destroyed Works of Art and Architecture, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Parts of this building were salvaged and reused - see: www.shorpy.com/node/5590

I love H.H. Richardson!