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The growth of the car works at Cowley meant that between 1921 and 1931 the population of the Headington district rose from 5,477 to 10,131. Some council houses were built in Headington in the 1920s and 1930s, but following the Second World War the housing shortage in Oxford was grave, and in 1950 there were 5,000 applicants on the city council housing list. As half of Oxford was already built up and another quarter liable to flood, the farms and market gardens of Headington were an obvious place for council housing.

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Barton estate (from 1937)

Oxford City Council

Prior to 1937, Barton was a small ancient hamlet of Old Headington on the present Barton Village Road, but in that year the building of a large council estate began there.

See separate page on Barton estate

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Gipsy Lane estate, Oxford (late 1920s)

oxford city council

Built from 1926 on land previously owned by Magdalen College

See separate page on Gipsy Lane estate

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Bullingdon Field estate (from the late 1920s)

Originally Headington Rural District Council/Headington Urban District Council,
and then Oxford City Council

Bulan Road area and Lye Valley, Headington

See separate page on Bullingdon Field estate

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Laurel Farm Close estate (1983–5)

Oxford City Council

See separate page on Laurel Farm Close estate

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London Road and Barton Road, Headington estate (1920–1925)

Headington Rural District Council/Headington Urban District Council
and then Oxford City Council

A Headington initiative that following the 1929 boundary extension became the oldest council estate in Oxford

See separate page on this very early council estate

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Northway estate (from 1951)

Oxford City Council

The building of 570 council houses in Northway started in 1951/2, and includes Plowman Tower

See separate page on the Northway estate

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Risinghurst estate (from the early 1930s)

Privately built by Benfield & Loxley

See separate page on the Risinghurst estate

See also Shotover Hill Place for part of the present Risinghurst

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Sandhills estate (from the early 1930s)

Privately built by the Bush Building Company

See separate page on the Sandhills estate

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Wood Farm estate (from 1953)

Oxford City Council

See separate page on the Wood Farm estate

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Other Headington estates (with no individual pages yet)

The Laurels (from 1958)

Oxford City Council

In 1958 150 council houses were built on site of the former London Road workhouse (which since 1931 had been a hospital known as The Laurels). It is in the parish of Holy Trinity Church in Quarry.

An outline planning application for the west side of “The Laurels” was agreed in May 1955, and full application 57/06175/A_H was approved in July 1957 for “Housing and ancillary purposes involving diversion of existing footpath”. This area comprised the site of 41–51 Gladstone Road (odd numbers); of 240–246 London Road (even numbers); and of William Kimber Crescent (1–11 odd and 21–12 and 16–20 even). In December 1957 revised application 57/06431/A_H was agreed for the same site for 29 houses and six lock-up garages for private cars.

Twelve more semi-detached council houses were built at 6–19 Toot Hill Butts after planning permission was granted in December 1959 (59/08718/A_H).

The relevant planning applications for The Laurels estate between 1965 and 1975 are as follows:

•  65/16008/A_H
  The Laurels London Road –1 shop, 156 flats and 43 dwelling houses and garages for private cars
• 66/17427/A_H
  The Laurels London Road – Estate layout for dwelling houses, flats and shops
• 66/17427/AA_H
  The Laurels London Road – Erection of dwelling houses with garages for private cars
• Douglas Veale House (even) 48–74 Gladstone Road, Tilehouse Close, Trafford Road, and John Snow Place
  68/20161/A_H
  The Laurels London Road - Outline application for residential development including shops and garages with roads and footpaths, and the closure to vehicular traffic of the junction of Pitts Road and London Road
• 48–74 Gladstone Road
  69/20161/A_H
  The Laurels London Road - Erection of 6 No five-bedroom houses, 10 No four-bedroom houses, 23 No three-bedroom houses, 28 No three-bedroom houses, 3 No three-bedroom bungalows, 4 No one-bedroom flats for old people, 1 No two-bedroom flat, 1 No shop on ground floor, 17 garages and hardstandings.
  
• 1–43 Colemans Hill, Tilehurst Close (odd) 1–11 (even) 14-34 (even) Trafford Road and John Snow Place
  75/00086/A_H
  The Laurels London Road – (Phase 2) Erection of two four-storey blocks with a two-storey link block for residential use, comprising 18 no. maisonettes, 22 no. flats, 3 no  bungalows and 36 no. garages. (Contract 1)

In May 1968 an outline application for The Laurels was agreed, comprising “residential development including shops and garages with roads and footpaths, and the closure to vehicular traffic of the junction of Pitts Road and London Road”: the new buildings and roads planned were Douglas Veale House; Gladstone Road (even nos. 48–74), Tilehurst Close, Trafford Road, John Snow Place, and Colemans Hill. The full application was approved in August 1969 for the erection of 6 five-bedroom houses, 10 four-bedroom houses, 23 three-bedroom houses, 28 three-bedroom houses, 3 three-bedroom bungalows, 4 one-bedroom flats for old people, 1 two-bedroom flat, 1 shop on ground floor, and 17 garages and hardstanding.

Photograph of prelimnary work on the Laurels Estate taken on 24 September 1970

Five more council houses were built in Spooner Close when permission 75/00748/A1_H was granted in September 1975.

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Mattock Close (1984–5)

Oxford City Council

This new council estate off Windmill Road was laid out on the old rose gardens of John Mattock. Outline planning permission was granted in 1980, and full permission 82/00211/GF was granted in July 1982 for “54 Dwellings with access roads, landscaping and 50 car hardstanding”. The designs were by the City Architect's Office/David Williams, and the estate was laid out in 1984–5.

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North Place (1986)

Oxford City Council

In November 1984 planning permission 84/00629/GFH was granted for “Erection of 26 one-bed flats, 1 two-bed flat, 1 two-bed disabled persons flat, 1 two-bed disabled persons bungalow. Car parking and new vehicular and pedestrian access. Located north of Bury Knowle Coach House”. This council housing was designed by the City Architect’s Office/David Williams.

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Quarry Fields estate
(from 1934)

Privately built
by Walker & Baker

This estate that now joins the former New Headington and Quarry villages was originally intended as a council estate, which explains the layout, but Oxford City Council sold it to private individuals in 1934.

See the poem written in October 1935 by Felicia Roper:
“On the Passing of the Fields between Headington and Quarry”

 

 

Right: Advertisement in 1937 for houses at Quarry Fields, with prices starting at £645

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Town Furze (from 1958)

Oxford City Council

260 council houses were built here from 1958. The estate is in the Parish of Holy Trinity Church in Quarry.

There were many planning applications, including the following:

• 54/04057/A_H: “Land at Town Furze – Layout of housing estate” approved in November 1954.
  This comprised Girdlestone Road (1–57 odd and 2–62 even).
• 55/04177/A_H: “Land at Town Furze – 159 houses and 84 flats at Town Furze” – approved in January 1955.
  This included the 62 houses on Girdlestone Road, and those on the new roads of Atwell Place, Dynham Place, Flexney Place, Goslyn Close, Heath Close, Massey Close, Warren Crescent, and Wylie Close.
• 56/04456/A_H : “Six four-bedroom 'Easiform' houses, Heath Close, Town Furze” – approved in July 1956
• 57/06430/A_H: “Land at Town Furze – 46 garages for private cars on ten sites” – approved in October 1957

By 1960 a group of shops was open in Girdlestone Road:

1: J. Austin, newsagent
5: G. E. Thomas, hairdresser
7: W. G. Hardy & Son, grocers

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Another estate bordering on Headington

Morrell Avenue estate (1929)

Oxford City Council

Morrell Avenue is actually part of St Clement’s parish, but leads up to Headington. Its 219 houses were built on the south side of South Park in 1929–31 and are of a higher standard than most council housing, probably because they were built at a time of high government subsidies.

The city council had hoped to build on all the farmland on the south side of Headington Hill that had belonged to the Morrell family, but the Morrell Trustees would only release this strip to the south, and the Morrell Trustees sold the remaining 60 acres to the Oxford Preservation Trust with the stipulation that no building should ever be erected on it, and this is now South Park.

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See also these blogs by Municipal Dreams about Oxford's council housing estates:

• Council Housing in Oxford, Part I: ‘‘We don’t despise these people but …’
• Council Housing in Oxford, Part II after 1945: ‘a Sense of Space and Freshness’