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Headington News Archive for 2015

New shops/offices in Headington, 2015

Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers opened in the former Oxford Designer Blinds shop at 113 London Road on Tuesday 1 December 2015.

 

Hamptons

Hamptons estate agents moved into 122 London Road (on the corner of Windmill Road) in September 2015.

This shop was Headington Co-op from 1892 to 1979. After a struggle to obtain planning permission for change of use from retail to office, Buckell & Ballard estate agents took the premises over in 1979, and remained there until 2011. Taylors estate agents occupied the premises from May 2011 to April 2015, when they transferred their business to their St Clement's branch.

 

Jacobs & Field's extension

Jacobs & Field's new restaurant next to Waitrose, connected to its Old High Street café, opened on Monday 16 November 2015. It will seat 60 people, and will have extended opening hours of 8am to 11pm.

This new shop next to Waitrose is deemed to be outside the Headington District Shopping Centre and is therefore not subject to the Local Plan: so although it was intended for retail or office use, the application by Jacobs & Field was approved. It was in two parts:

(1) “Change of use of 15 Old High Street from Use Class A1/A3 (Retail/Restaurant) to Use Class A3 (Restaurant).”

This existing shop is subject to the Local Plan and should remain in A1/A3 use under the special arrangement agreed when planning permission was granted (namely that it returns to A1 retail use if there is a change of ownership).

(2) “Change of use of unit rear of 15 Old High Street from Use Class A1/A2 (Retail or Financial and Professional Services) to Use Class A3. Internal alterations to combine units to form 1 x A3 unit.”

Vacant shops in Headington centre end of 2015
Osheey Afro-Caribbean Groceries

5 Simon House, Windmill Road. Closed September 2015

This shop was formerly Da Root Hairdressing.

BBB stores

These closed in

BBB Stores

142 London Road. Closed mid-2015.

Morrisons

73–75  London Road. Closed November 2014

The former Morrison's shop at 73–75 London Road was available to rent leasehold at £60,000 per annum. The premises measure 1,893 sq. ft, and loading is only possible via the front of the shop.

Johnson's Cleaners

102 London Road. Closed 5 February 2015

This was advertised to let at an annual rent of £27,000 (£365 per sq.m). Renovation took place in June/July 2015.

Trade Exchange pawn shop

112 London Road. Closed August 2013

A planning application for “Change of use from Retail (Use Class A1) to mixed use (Retail (Use Class A1) and Restaurant/cafe (Use Class A3)) at ground floor level” has been refused:

TVA originally advertised the business with a commencing rental of £48,500 per year; it was then advertised by JRBT Commercial Property, with a reduced rent of £45,000.

 

Vacant offices in Headington centre
Offices above Lloyds Bank

These offices above Lloyds Bank at 87 London Road are available to rent for £18,500 per annum.

General Election 2015

Labour held Oxford East, with 25,356 votes; the Conservatives came second with 10,076 votes; and the Green Party third with 5,890 votes. The turnout was 64.4%.

First World War 100-year remembrances: 1915

Eleven Headington men died in 1915 (all volunteers, as conscription did not start until 2 March 1916).

February 1915

Poppy Private Charles Frederick Ward (46): a career soldier of the OBLI Territorials who lived in Quarry High Street and died in the Southern General Hospital on 10 February 1915 from heart disease (exacerbated by his military duties as a local guard): buried in a war grave in Holy Trinity churchyard

March 1915

Poppy Private William Trafford (24) of the OBLI: a general labourer who lived in Quarry High Street and died in France on 5 March 1915: remembered on the Le Touret Memorial

Poppy Rifleman William Bateman (23) of the King's Royal Rifle Corps: a career soldier who lived at 37 Lime Walk and died in Belgium on 6 March 1915: remembered on the Menin Gate

May 1915

Poppy Private George Atkinson (31) of the Royal Berkshire Regiment: attendant at the Warneford Asylum who lived in New High Street: killed in France on 15 May 1915: remembered on the Le Touret Memorial

Poppy Corporal Benjamin Brazier (21) of the OBLI: student at the Royal School of Music who lived at Cowley Barracks: killed in France on 16 May 1915: remembered on the Le Touret Memorial

Poppy Private Richard Bridgewater (46) of the OBLI: servant at New College who lived at 28 Lime Walk: killed in France on 16 May 1915: remembered on the Le Touret Memorial

September 1915

Poppy Private Joseph Heritage (29) of the OBLI: Brickmaker who lived with his wife and children near the school in Quarry: killed in France on 24 September 1915: buried in the Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy

Poppy Private Harry Hedges (25): Garden labourer who lived near the school in Quarry: killed in Flanders on 25 September 1915: remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial

Poppy Lance-Corporal Frederick Parsons (25): Brickmaker's carter who lived at The Pitts: killed in France on 25 September 1915: remembered on the Loos Memorial

Poppy Private Arthur "Ferret" Taylor (39): Former brickmaker's labourer who lived in Quarry High Street with his wife and eight children and was let out of Oxford Prison to fight: killed in France on 25 September 1915: remembered on the Loos Memorial

October 2015

Poppy Driver Frederick King (26): cheesemonger's assistant lodging in London whose mother ran Highfield Farm: died of wounds in France on 19 October 1915: buried at the Chocques Military Cemetery

December 2015

Poppy Philip Denys Doyne (24), son of the Vicar of Headington Quarry from 1916, who was killed in France on 28 December 1915: buried at Hébuterne Military Cemetery

Biographies of all 120 Headington people who died

Headington business gets Royal Warrant

Temple Bookbinders in Stephen Road were granted a Royal Warrant after binding books for the Queen for five years.

 

 

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Headington on That's Oxford TV in 2015
The Willows: Barton Road Cricket Ground

Thomas Homes sold the houses built on the site of the former cricket club in Barton Road since mid-2015, with prices ranging from £530,000 to £650,000.

The development is called The Willows, reflecting the fact that this was the land given to Headington United Cricket Club when Headington United expanded to occupy the whole of the Manor Ground site. The proposed public art for the site has been approved, namely two benches with arm-rests designed as cricket bats and the back-rest as stumps and bails.

The East Area Planning Committee on 3 July approved the planning application by Thomas Homes for the Cricket Ground in Barton Road, namely the erection of 30 residential units (8 x 4 bed houses, 17 x 3 bed houses, 2 x 2 bed flats and 3 x 1 bed flats) together with access road, 51 car parking spaces, 60 cycle parking spaces, public open space and landscaping.

Park & Ride for John Radcliffe Hospital?

The county council stated that green-belt land close to Marsh Lane and the northern bypass was being considered for a park-and-ride site for the JR Hospital.

 

29 Old High Street

Oxford City Council had to ask Oxford Magistrates Court to dismiss their charges against Martin Young for not acting on the March 2011 enforcement notice when they realized the prosecution was timed out. The case was due to be held on 12 March 2015.

Full saga of 29 Old High Street

The Holyoake Road home of C. S. Lewis

Hillsboro, the house at 14 Holyoake Road where C. S. Lewis lived with Mrs Moore in the 1920s before buying The Kilns with her, was advertised by Strutt & Parker in 2013 as land for potential re-development.

Two planning applications have been submitted and then withdrawn:

(1) July 2015 for “Demolition of existing side extension. Erection of 2 x 5-bed dwellings (Use Class C3). Provision of dropped kerb, car parking, private amenity space and bin stores”:

(2) December 2014: An earlier planning application with an identical description:

The name Hillsboro can be seen engraved over the downstairs window. Lewis must have been on his way up to this house when he was famously became a theist in 1929 while on a bus going up Headington Hill.

In recent years there was a chiropractice at this house.

A withdrawn and a refused application
(1) 4 Lime Walk

“Erection of a two storey building to create 4 x 2-bed flats (Use Class C3). Provision of 2 No. carparking spaces, private amenity space, bin and cycle store.”

(2) Margaret Road garage

The planning application for this site, which is owned by the Doris Field Charitable Trust, has been refused. The plans including a rebuilt garage as before, plus six flats:
“Demolition of existing garage and workshop. Erection of three storey building to provide 3 x 2-bed and 3 x 3-bed flats (Use Class C3). Erection of garage together with 6no. car parking spaces.”

Sites and Housing Plan

The Sites and Housing Plan was adopted in February 2013.

Headington Car Park was saved, but there were still another 21 Headington sites on the list, some of which were y being redeveloped in 2015.

New entrance to JR

Construction of the new £3–£4m "welcome centre" at the John Radcliffe Hospital began on 2 February 2015 and was completed by November. This includes a Marks & Spencer café and Simply Food store, and a branch of W.H. Smith.

The hospital obtained planning permission in September 2012 to build this centre, which will bridge the gap between the main hospital and women’s centre A second application was approved in 2013: this varied condition 2 of the permission to include a reduction in height and scale, change of material, and a reduction in the number of retail units

Outbuilding at J.H. Brookes's house

The appeal by Anwar Javid Dogar, the owner of 195 The Slade, against an enforcement notice served in January 2014 in relation to an unauthorised outbuilding and walkway in their back garden, was dismissed by the Planning Inspector, Stephen Brown, in February 2015:

  • Dismissed appeal 14/00035/ENF
    (see Appeal Decision under Documents tab for full details)

In January 2014 Mr Dogar was served enforcement notice 4/00021/ENF. He appealed against this notice, but the appeal was dismissed at a public inquiry at the Town Hall on 10 February 2015, and the outbuilding, (which the Planning Inspector agreed was "comparable in size to a large bungalow" and said showed signs of occupation) will have to come down.

This house was the home of John Henry Brookes, who lived there from 1929 until his death in 1975 and sports a blue plaque to this effect. It was designed by Brookes's friend Thomas Rayson and was known as the Gate House. Brookes looked after the sizeable garden himself, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that it was “apparently the pride of the neighbourhood”.

The house was put up for sale for £1 million in January 2014, but the advertisement on the James C. Penny site was subsequently taken down. A planning application for the erection of a more modest garden building to replace the current building was approved in October 2014:

“Access to Headington”

In 2015 the county council held a preliminary consultation on this £12.5m package of transport improvements for the Headington area (from Marsh Lane to Horspath Driftway and the Eastern bypass, including Old Road):