quatrefoils

This is a pair of semi-detached houses. Note that although the outer bays (containing the circulation spaces) are gothic, the inner bays (containing the principal apartments) are much like any Victorian house, with large canted bays. This would appear to be the laying out of a grand suburb, with remains of countryside to the left and further development to the right. This is clearly high-class work, in stone where this is not the local habit (note the brick garden wall and, I think, the other houses).

aldisley Thank you for all this information!

Absolutely sure this is also North Oxford but I cant find it. This really needs to be posted in a flickr group such as What's That Picture. Someone who knows or lives in Oxford could identify it straight off.

Thank you Andy for your comment!

Nos. 17+18 Parks Road, North Oxford, viewed from north east. Semi-detached houses on the east side of the Keble Road Triangle (Keble / Parks / Banbury Rd), opposite to University Parks' West Walk. Built in 1872, architect unknown. Named "South Elms" (No. 17) and "North Elms" (No. 18). Built on an estate of 16,000 square feet (the front line was more than 180 feet). Lots of gothic revival elements, pointed arches around doors & windows, stained glass windows along the staircases, quatrefoil windows, finials on top of the corners of the central roof. Among the residents were William Merry, Oxford preacher, Lecturer and Rector of Lincoln College, at North Elms, and T.K. Cheyne, English Biblical Scholar & Oriel professor, at South Elms. The house in the background on the left is No. 15 Parks Road, the northern part of "East View", which is also shown in this album. The space between East View and South Elms remained vacant for 20 more years until "The Red House" (No. 16) was built and leased in 1895. In the 1930s it became the home of the family of Sir Howard Florey, nobel laureate for his work on the development of penicillin. In the late 1950s, No. 16 had to make way for a school building of the Dept. of Metallurgy, a glass/steel structure known today as Hume-Rothery Building. Once the most prominent building in this street, North & South Elms soon became overtopped by further post modern buildings of the evolving Science Area, particularly Thom Building in 1963 and Denys Wilkinson Building in 1967. In 1963, nearby Pitt Rivers Museum started to use No. 18 as external storage space for collection items. After these had been returned to the Museums' Upper Gallery in 1972, the building was stripped of everything reusable (roof tiles, windows) and eventually, in 1973, demolished to make way for Holder Building. Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - Town Plan of Oxfordshire XXXIII.15.7 (1876), National Library of Scotland - Picture Oxon, photographs by Malcolm Graham - Internet Archive (archive.org) - The Pitt Rivers Museum Conservation Plan View the other photographs of Victorian Architecture of North Oxford in this album.

No. 3, Norham Gardens, named "Garford House". Grade II listed. Built in 1866/67, architect: Charles Buckeridge. This photograph shows the house just like it was originally built. Later, in the 1890s it was heavily extended (by about 50%) to the west (right), the entrance was moved to the street side and a large porch was added. The conservatory seen here was demolished, a new one being built at the houses' southeast side. Photographs from the 1960s show a second entrance door, vanished again in the 2000s, thus this house would have had been temporarily subdivided into multiple flats. That's why the brickwork of the front fassade looks a bit cobbled together today. Offered for sale at £ 5.5m in 2017, finally sold in 2022 to Atlantic Institute who refurbished the house as an 8-bedroom fellows residence and named it "Kopanong". The house in the background on the left is No. 5 Norham Gardens (by W. WIlkinson, 1865) which, although later divided into 4 flats, has retained its original character since 150 years. Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - Historic England Archive, Red Box Collection

No. 33 Banbury Road, seen from east. Built in 1865-67, architect: Charles Edward Bruton. Named "Springfield". (At that time the address was 16 St Giles’s Road). The house was first leased by the Revd J. V. Durell for his widowed mother and his unmarried siblings. Members of the Durell family lived there until 1924. In 1928 Springfield was leased by nuns of the Anglican Community of St. Mary's who established a hostel there for students of the Society of Oxford Home-Students (after 1942 St. Anne's Society). Later, accommodation space was further extended by aquiring adjacent Nos. 31 (The Firs, also imaged here in this album) and 35 (todays Eleanor Plumer House). Together with other villas on Bevington Road, the three linked houses of Springfield St. Mary contributed to the development of what later became the site of St. Anne's College. After St. Anne's received full College status in 1959, they developed ambitious plans to meet accomodation requirements due to increasing student numbers. No. 33 Banbury Road was the first which had to make way for a modern, four storey student residence, Wolfson Building, and was demolished in 1963. Besides the Gardener who is proudly presenting his lawn roller here, another member of the household staff, probably the Butler or Footman can be seen in this photograph watching the scenery from the dining room window (1st floor right). Sources: - T. Hinchcliffe: North Oxford (Yale Univ. Press) - St. Sepulchres Cemetery web site, Oxford (The following material found at St. Anne's web site): - The Ship 2020-2021 - Amy Langer (ed.): St. Anne's College Alumnae Personal Histories - Dr. David Smith: St. Anne's College 1952-2012 - Bevington Road: A History