Kingston Road
The above postcard is postmarked 2 August 1906, and shows Kingston Road in about 1905. The photographer was standing just south of the point where Walton Street (which runs north from central Oxford) suddenly becomes Kingston Road. On the left is the entrance to Walton Well Road (leading to Lucy’s Eagle Ironworks, the canal, and Port Meadow), and on the right is St John’s Road (now renamed St Bernard’s Road and leading to the Woodstock Road).
There are tram-lines in the middle of the road with a crossing point: the horse-drawn trams came up from Oxford via Beaumont Street, and terminated at the corner of Leckford Road. These tramlines were removed in 1915 when William Morris brought in his motor buses.
At 1 Kingston Road on the left is the shop of Edward Hewlett, baker & confectioner, advertising cocoa and chocolate. He only had the shop from about 1905 to 1909 (until 1904 it was run by Mrs E. Vines, and from 1910 by Norman E. Minty). Five doors further up at No. 6 is Soanes & Taylor, coal merchants (which became Charles T. A. Wiblin’s butcher’s shop in 1913).
On the right at No. 179 is Edwin Smith’s ironmonger’s shop with metal buckets and pans stacked outside for sale. This was later a locksmith's shop, then Partymania, and finally Frog Orange. It is now being demolished and turned into flats (24/01309/FUL),
Street numbering of Kingston RoadThe numbering of Kingston Road follows the old, pre-1880s style. (It has never been changed to the more modern style introduced in the 1880s which places odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other.) Hence it starts at the south (town) end with No. 1, runs consecutively 1–2–3–4–5 northwards up the west side, crosses the street, and runs back down towards town, with the result that the highest and lowest numbers, 1 and 179, are opposite each other in the forefront of this picture. |
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| West side, running S→N From north end of Walton Street to south end of Hayfield Road |
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| Walton Street→ Longworth Road | Nos. 1–13 | |
| Longworth Road→Southmoor Place | Nos. 14–34 | |
| Southmoor Place→Southmoor Road | Nos. 35–62 | |
| Southmoor Road→Hayfield Road | Nos. 63–90 | |
| East side, running N→S From south end of Hayfield Road to north end of Walton Street |
Polstead Road→St Margaret’s Road | Nos. 91–98 |
| St Margaret’s Road→Farndon Road | Nos. 100–113 | |
| Farndon Road→Tackley Place | Nos. 114–138 | |
| Tackley Place→Leckford Road | Nos. 139–164 | |
| Leckford Road→Plantation Road | Nos. 165–174 | |
| Plantation Road→St Bernard’s Road* | Nos. 175–179 | |
| * formerly St John’s Road | ||
The street’s name and origin
Like most of the other roads in Walton Manor that were owned by St John’s College, Kingston Road is named after the college’s living at Kingston Bagpuize.
The street did not exist in the 1860s, when there were just gardens here, with a lane called Cabbage Hill winding through them. Two terraces of artisans’ cottages (numbered 119–28 and 159–64) were designed by C. C. Rolfe in 1870 and are now Grade II listed.
Parish
Kingston Road was originally in SS Philip & James parish, which had a mission room in Hayfield Road. In 1894 this mission room was replaced by a St Margaret’s chapel of ease, on the corner of St Margaret’s Road and Kingston Road. Twelve years later in 1896, just twelve years after it opened, the chapel of ease became an independent church, so since then Kingston Road has been in St Margaret’s parish.
Historic England images
Historic England has three photographs of Kingston Road. If you hover over the image you would like and choose “Share” followed by </> you can get the code to embed them on your website.
Here as an example is a view of the road from the south of Tackley Place (BB72/06653), which was beyond the terminus of the trams. You can view it full-screen by hovering over the image and then clicking on the symbol at the top right-hand corner: