5, NORHAM GARDENS

Reasons for Designation

Number 5, of 1865, was one of the earliest houses on the Norham Manor Estate. It is of special architectural interest for the domestic Gothic fenestration and door archways, and the distinctive steeply pitched hipped roofs that suggest a French Gothic quality. Designated at grade II.

Details

612/0/10150 NORHAM GARDENS 07-OCT-08 5

GV II BUILDING: House, now divided into 5 flats.

DATE: 1865

ARCHITECT: William Wilkinson

MATERIALS: Red brick in English bond; stone window dressings, strings and corbelled eaves; steeply hipped plain tile roofs with sprocketted eaves and lead finials; brick chimneys with offset caps and stone-coped flanks. Gothic fenestration with colonnettes and carved foliage capitals, ground-floor lights with shouldered arches, first-floor lights with pointed arches.

PLAN: Roughly square.

FAÇADE: 2 storeys, semi-basement and attic. Fronts garden to south, with entrance in west side and service entrance to road on north. 2-storey porch extension and steps added 1905 by H. Quinton to west front; early service entry and stair added to north side. Garden front of 2 bays: roof is canted forward over full-height canted bay to right; left bay has single-storey rectangular bay window with hipped roof. Tall ground-floor windows rise from floor level, with stone balcony running across in front on shaped stone brackets. Cast iron balustrade with trellis work and open upper panels survives to front of canted bay and continues down steps to right in front of early C20 conservatory. Basement windows below balcony have C20 UPVC casements. Dormers have steep gables overhanging on brackets, with pierced bargeboards. West side has chimney to right, and slightly advanced porch in matching style with Gothic stone archway. This has plain stone tympanum over shouldered lintel, and label with carved foliage stops. Similar inner archway enriched with colonettes and more carved foliage. Encaustic tiles to porch floor. Service front to road has distinct hipped roof over stair bay to right, with gablet over top window. Added lobby with shallow pointed stone arch and raking series of cusped roundel lights to service stair above.

INTERIORS: Original main stairs with ringed spindle balusters and cusped roundels to newels; interior otherwise not seen but said to be modified for flats, with no original fireplaces.

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. Norham Gardens was the first road to be laid out by St. John's as part of the intended suburb, with the south side of the road opening on to the University Parks. Number 5 was built in 1865 by William Wilkinson for Robert Pike, auctioneer.

SOURCES: T. Hinchcliffe, North Oxford (1992)

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Number 5, of 1865, was one of the earliest houses on the Norham Manor Estate. It is of special architectural interest for the domestic Gothic fenestration and door archways, and the distinctive steeply pitched hipped roofs that suggest a French Gothic quality.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

493693

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hinchcliffe, T, North Oxford, ()

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