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Park Town
The main crescent of Park Town
Park TownShow map of OxfordPark TownLocation within OxfordshireShow map of Oxfordshire
OS grid reference	SP512078
Civil parish	Unparished
District	Oxford
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Oxford
Postcode district	OX2
Dialling code	01865
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Oxford West and Abingdon
Website	Oxford City Council
List of places UK England Oxfordshire 51°45′58″N 1°15′40″W / 51.766°N 1.261°W / 51.766; -1.261

Park Town is a small residential area in central North Oxford, a suburb of Oxford, England. It was one of the earliest planned suburban developments in the area and most of the houses are Grade II listed.

History

Samuel Lipscomb Seckham (1827–1900) developed the houses in the main crescent in 1853–54, with Bath stone front elevations, and the west-facing crescent with an elevated pavement known as "The Terrace" in 1854–55. The Park Town Estate Company was formed in September 1857 through Seckham's efforts.

Many of the houses and gardens in Park Town were originally surrounded by ornamental iron railings. Those for the detached houses were removed for war use in the Second World War but some have been restored. The Friends of Park Town restored the railings and lanterns around the central garden in the middle of the main Park Town crescent and received an award for the project from the Oxford Preservation Trust in 1977.

Location

Park Town includes two crescents of town houses, surrounding communal gardens and a number of larger villas.

To the west is Banbury Road with Canterbury Road on the opposite side and to the east is the Dragon School. St Anne's College has student accommodation here.

Individual houses

Miss Sarah Angelina Acland (1849–1930), daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth Acland, lived for the latter part of her life and died at her home in (then No. 7) Park Town, recorded by a blue plaque in 2016. Her interest in colour photography at the turn of the 20th century produced a number of significant early examples, which are held at the History of Science Museum in central Oxford, a number of which were taken in Park Town.

5 Park Town, was the second home of the Central Labour College (1910–1911) before it moved to 11–13 Penywern Road, Earls Court, London.

Notable residents

Former residents include:

• Sarah Angelina Acland (1849–1930), pioneer colour photographer.
• Edmund Bowen FRS (1898–1980), chemist and Fellow of University College.
• Godfrey Rolles Driver CBE, FBA (1892–1975), orientalist and Fellow of Magdalen College.
• Professor Sir Michael Dummett (1925–2011), philosopher and anti-racism campaigner, All Souls College, New College, Wykeham Professor of Logic.

• Charles Sutherland Elton FRS (1900–1991), zoologist, ecologist and Fellow of Corpus Christi College.
• John Flemming (1941–2003), economist and Warden of Wadham College.
• James Clerk Maxwell Garnett CBE (1880–1958), educationist and Secretary of the League of Nations.
• Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945), Myanmar State Counsellor.
• Ian McEwan (born 1948), Booker Prize winning novelist.
• William Richard Morfill (1834–1909), first Professor of Russian and Slavonic Languages at Oxford, lived at number 42 and is commemorated by a blue plaque.
• Leonid Pasternak (1862–1945), Russian painter, spent the last six years of his life living with his daughter Lydia Pasternak Slater (1902–1989), chemist and poet, at no. 20. Leonid Pasternak was the father of Boris Pasternak, poet and author of Doctor Zhivago, but he remained in Russia until his death. Ann Pasternak Slater, academic and translator, is the daughter of Lydia Pasternak Slater.
• Rupert Spira (born 1960), spiritual teacher and philosopher.

References

1. "1–61, Parktown, Oxford". Listed Buildings in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
2. "Park Town Estate Co Ltd". Bodleian Library, Oxford. UK: The National Archives. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
3. Hinchcliffe 1992, p. not cited.
4. ^ Spokes Symonds 1998, pp. 95–96.
5. Keown, Callum (26 September 2017). "Oxford Preservation Trust Awards: Look back at 40 years of award-winning buildings". Oxford Mail.
6. ^ "Sarah Angelina ACLAND (1849–1930), Photographer – 10 Park Town, Oxford". UK: Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. 24 July 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
7. "Sarah Acland Results List". UK: History of Science Museum, Oxford. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
8. The Plebs Magazine, Volumes 3-4 (Kraus, 1970), pp. 66 & 142
9. Kelly 1976, p. 417.
10. Spokes Symonds 1998, pp. 81–83.
11. "Remembering Michael Dummett". The New York Times. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
12. "Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America". Ecological Society of America. 48 (4). Wiley: 22. doi:10.2307/20165739.
13. "John Flemming". Oxford Mail. 14 August 2003.
14. Davies, Caroline (20 June 2012). "Aung San Suu Kyi's struggle commemorated with honorary Oxford degree". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
15. MacAlister, Katherine (4 September 2014). "Ian McEwan talks ahead of his city date". Oxford Mail.
16. "William Richard Morfill (1834–1909)". Plaques Awarded, Oxford City. Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
17. Christopher J. Barnes, Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography, Volume 2 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 164
18. "Rupert Andrew SPIRA". GOV.UK. UK. Retrieved 19 November 2023.

Sources and further reading

• Chance, Eleanor; Colvin, Christina; Cooper, Janet; Day, C.J.; Hassall, T.G.; Selwyn, Nesta (1979). Crossley, Alan; Elrington, C.R. (eds.). A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. Vol. 4: The City of Oxford.
• Hinchcliffe, Tanis (1992). North Oxford. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05184-0.
• Kelly, Frederic Festus, ed. (1976). "Park Town". Kelly's Directory of Oxford (68th ed.). Kingston-upon-Thames: Kelly's Directory. p. 417.
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 320–321. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
• Spokes Symonds, Ann (1998). "Families". The Changing Faces of North Oxford. Vol. Book One. Witney: Robert Boyd Publications. pp. 81–83, 95–96. ISBN 1-899536-25-6.
• Tyack, Geoffrey (1998). Oxford An Architectural Guide. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 215–216. ISBN 0-19-817423-3.

External links

• Media related to Park Town, Oxford at Wikimedia Commons

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• 1857 establishments in England
• British companies established in 1857
• Areas of Oxford
• History of Oxford
• Parks and open spaces in Oxford
• St Anne's College, Oxford
• Crescents (architecture)
• Houses completed in 1854
• Houses completed in 1855
• Grade II listed buildings in Oxford