Description

612/0/10145 BANBURY ROAD
07-OCT-08 56
Wykeham House

GV II
BUILDING: House

DATE: 1866, with extensions of 1884, 1894, 1900, and 1992-3.

ARCHITECT: John Gibbs.

MATERIALS: Yellow brick with red brick window arches and stone dressings; slate roofs.

PLAN: Broadly rectangular, with many projections.

FAÇADE: High Victorian Gothic. 2 storeys, attic and basement.
Front façade: 1866 build to centre has gable to right, original castellated porch to centre, and wide left bay with single lights flanking front chimney. Chimney has arched stone tablet to base, carved with bishop's mitre and 'Wykeham House', Gothic inscription 'Manners mayketh Man', and canopied stone statue of William of Wykeham carved by W. Forsyth of Worcester. Top part of chimney rebuilt late C20. Flanking single-light windows with cusped stone arches, columns and carved caps. One dormer. Right gable has similar 2-light windows in arched stone tympana with carved roundels, one inscribed 'E III', set in an advanced gable with carved stone dragons. Paired attic lights above with carved corbel to roof vent.
Porch extended 1894 as dated on stone parapet, with marble columns to front and curved service stair to basement on right side. Leaded lights. 3-storey tower added to left corner of house also dated 1894, with matching windows, triple top lights and pyramidal roof. Matching gabled extension set back to right of house has window dated 1884 now concealed within 1900 conservatory. Irregular rear façade with extended attics (part on corbels), projecting WC tower and 1992 extension.

INTERIOR: Entrance hall has Gothic arch to porch, polygonal bay to rear corner, and windows with leaded lights and coloured margins. Dog-leg wooden staircase on Gothic arcade, with 2-tier balustrade of slats and turned columns. Service stair with ramped handrail and skirtings, and built-in cupboards. Ground floor retains all moulded ceiling cornices and embossed wallpaper in front left room, but doorways and fireplaces have been removed; first floor less altered, retaining small painted stone fireplaces; basement re-partitioned but retains matchboarding and stone fireplace with Art Nouveau grate in house-keeper's room.

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. 56 Banbury Road is dated 1866 on a window roundel. It was designed by John Gibbs for Henry Hatch, a draper. Extended in matching style 1884 and 1894 for E.B. Poulton, Professor of Zoology, with conservatory added to front right 1900 by H.W. Moore. Rear extension of 1992-3 The building is currently used by Oxford University Careers Service 2001.

SOURCES: T. Hinchcliffe, North Oxford (1992)

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: A substantial house of 1866 and later with strong and careful gothic details with a Ruskinian flavour. The façade is an unusual composition with a chimney and tower to the left and an asymmetrical gable to the right. It makes a special contribution among the row of show houses prominently set at the entrance to North Oxford's Norham Manor estate.

Reasons for Listing

A substantial house of 1866 and later with strong and careful gothic details with a Ruskinian flavour. The façade is an unusual composition with a chimney and tower to the left and an asymmetrical gable to the right. It makes a special contribution among the row of show houses prominently set at the entrance to North Oxford's Norham Manor estate. Designated at grade II.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672111

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)