1, Belbroughton Road Oxford, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

612/0/10156 BELBROUGHTON ROAD 07-OCT-08 1

GV II BUILDING: house

DATE: 1925-6

ARCHITECT: Christopher Wright

MATERIALS: Red brick in English bond, forming arcade to front with cement-rendered infill; tall plain tile roof, hipped and steeply pitched, with sprocketted eaves; symmetrical tall brick chimneys with off-set caps.

PLAN: Double pile plan in late C17 style

FACADE:. 2 storeys and attic. Symmetrical front has 3 giant brick arches on piers with offset imposts. Rendered walling within arcade is slightly recessed, and articulated with ground-floor piers supporting entablature with white-painted cornice. Cornice is broken by open pediment over central door in white-painted architrave frame. Metal casements with glazing bars: single light flanking cross windows to ground floor outer bays; 3-light to first floor, rising up into curve of arch. Three hipped roof dormers with paired casements and tiled cheeks. Glazed door with wooden glazing bars and single low panel.

INTERIORS: rear and interior not seen.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: flat-roofed garage to right, with brick parapet, plank doors and strap hinges, is part of original design.

HISTORY: the North Oxford suburb evolved from about 1860 on land owned by St. John's College, with the College gradually making available discreet sets of building plots to lease as it sought to ensure a firm financial future for its endowment. St. John's kept strict control of the development, both in terms of the scale of the houses, and their distribution. All designs were vetted for quality, and to ensure adequate provision of front walls and railings, and rear gardens. In the late C19 Oxford began to grow still northward, and Belbroughton Road was developed between 1924 and 1931 with detached middle-class housing, mostly of only two storeys. It is therefore one of the latest original developments in the North Oxford Conservation Areas. Christopher Wright's houses are of especial interest for their re-examination of later C17 themes and proportions in a modern context.

SOURCES: Plans dated December 1925 are held by Oxford City Council Building Control as part of City Engineer's archive, ref. NS 3510 [these give intended name of 'The Loggia', and show rear as having a central hipped stair projection]; T. Hinchcliffe, 'North Oxford' (1992), 133.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: variety or innovation in design or materials are generally looked for in buildings post-dating 1840 if they are to be added to the list, and for buildings later than 1914 the standards are especially high and great selectivity is applied. This house of 1925-6 by Christopher Wright is of special architectural merit for its facade of three giant brick arches, the rendered infill walling articulated by ground floor piers and entablature. The late C17-style is continued by tall hipped roof, dormers and symmetrical tall stacks. Recommended to list at Grade II.