cornelluniversitylibrary

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

No. 141 Woodstock Road, North Oxford, viewed from north west. Built in 1864, architect unknown. A Romanesque style villa, named "Walton Manor", established on a large estate of 30,000 square feet, at the southwest corner of Woodstock Road with St. Margaret's Road (named Rackham's Lane at that time). Built in red brick with black/blue (?) and white decorations (similar to 58 Banbury Rd). There's a large conservatory on the southwest side (right), connected to a glass-roofed south terrace. First leaseholder was John Obadiah Westwood, famous Entomologist and Hope Professor of Zoology. After his death in 1893, his nieces and heiresses, the Misses Swann ran the villa as a boarding house. In the 1950s & 60s, Sir Alister Hardy, Linacre Professor of Zoology was living here with his family, probably until his retirement in 1963. Together with Nos. 133 to 139, Walton Manor House was demolished in 1967/68 to make way for Russell Court. Most of the property's boundary wall is still standing, including some dogtooth brickwork on Woodstock Road. Remains of the entrance gate seen here, the arch removed and the doorway walled up, are also visible today from St. Margaret's Road. The house entrance was decorated with an elaborate tympanum made of stone, inscribed "Benedictus benedicat", the short grace used at some Oxford Colleges. It has recently (2022) been installed at Magdalen Colleges' Longwall Library. The house in the background should be No. 139 Woodstock Road, still unfinished (scaffolded) here, considering the lease date, this photograph could therefore be assumed to be taken around 1884, when No. 141 was already 20 years old. Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - Town Plan of Oxford XXXIII.11.21 (1876), National Library of Scotland. - St. Sepulchres Cemetery web site, Oxford - Historic England, Architectural Red Box Collection, photographs by Peter Spencer Spokes - Internet Archive (archive.org)

A comparison with what it looks like today