Headington Girls' School
Headington School was founded in 1915 by an Oxford group of evangelical Christians as an independent school to provide "a sound education for girls to fit them for the demands and opportunities likely to arise after the war".
It occupied a number of large houses in Headington before settling on its present site:
- The school started life in Headington Lodge on Osler Road with just ten boarding and eight day girls (1915–1918)
- In 1916 Brookside on the London Road was taken over by the school: it is now the school’s preparatory department. (It was built in 1886 and first occupied by Thomas Arnall, Oxford’s Head Postmaster. The school confusingly renamed it Napier House when they moved out of the original Headington house with that name)
- In 1917 the real Napier House in Pullen’s Lane was also taken over. (It was built in 1892 for Professor Arthur Napier, and – now renamed Cotuit Hall – is part of Oxford Brookes University)
- In 1920 numbers had reached 70, and Davenport House (on the corner of London Road and Pullen’s Lane) was taken over by the school. This house had a two-acre garden and another 19 acres of farmland attached stretching as far east as the White Horse pub. Eventually this became the site of the present main school (although part of the estate was purchased by the council for the construction of Headley Way)
- In 1921 the school took over Hillstow (now Dorset House) on the London Road, and this became the fifth large Headington house to be used by the school
- In 1930 the present main school was built in the neo-Georgian style: the postcard above shows it shortly after it was opened. Chiang Yee in The Silent Traveller in Oxford describes it as having an "atmosphere of spacious dignity". By 1947 there were over 300 girls at the school, and in 1985 there were 500 in the senior school (about half of them boarders) and 130 in the preparatory department.
The aerial photograph below shows Headington School in 1936. Notice how Headley Way stops short as soon as it reaches the school grounds. Behind the school on the left are Brookside Nurseries (now the site of Franklin Road) and on the right is Staunton Road.
