Oxford History

Streets with changed names

Comprehensive list of Oxford street name changes, compiled by John Talbot (PDF)
The above list is comprehensive and includes all the changes

Some streets, such as Hockmore Street in Cowley, have vanished altogether

The table below lists the more recent changes and is designed to help people look up streets in old directories, and to find them on street maps. Most of the changes were necessitated by the twentieth-century absorption into the city of new suburbs which had names already in use.

Original Name	New Name	Notes	Date
Albert Road, Summertown	Hobson Road	To avoid confusion with Albert Street in Jericho	1961
Alexandra Road, Headington	Gathorne Road	To avoid confusion with Alexandra Road in West Oxford	1950
Alfred Street and Alfred Lane, St Giles	Pusey Street and Pusey Lane	To avoid confusion with Alfred Street off the High Street	c.1927
Barrack Road, Headington	The Slade	To avoid confusion with Barracks Lane	1931
Bocardo Road	St Michael’s Street	Bocardo prison long gone; unfortunate connotations	1899
Brasenose Lane, Cowley	Brasenose Driftway	To avoid confusion with Brasenose Lane in central Oxford	Between 1935 and 1947
Bridewell Lane	Frewin Court	Bridewell long gone; bad connotations	1890–1
Catherine Street, Central Oxford	Catte Street	To avoid confusion with Catherine Street in East Oxford (a return to its original name, considered undignified by Victorians)	1930
Cemetery Road, Cowley (formerly New Road)	Church Cowley Road	Removal of unpleasant name
Cemetery Road, Headington	Dunstan Road	Removal of unpleasant name
Charles Street	Turn Again Lane	Reversion to old name to avoid confusion with Charles Street in east Oxford	1972
Church Lane, New Hinksey	Vicarage Lane	To avoid confusion with Church Lane, Wolvercote	Between 1935 and 1947
Church Lane, Old Headington	St Andrew’s Lane	To avoid confusion with Church Lane, Wolvercote	Between 1935 and 1947
Church Street, Cowley	Beauchamp Lane	To avoid confusion with each other (and with Church Street, St Ebbe’s, which later disappeared)	1955
Church Street, Holywell	St Cross Road		Late 19C
Church Street, New Headington	Perrin Street		Between 1935 and 1947
Church Street, New Hinksey	Vicarage Road		Between 1935 and 1947
Church Street, Old Headington	St Andrew’s Road		Between 1935 and 1947
Church Street, Summertown	Rogers Street		Between 1935 and 1947
Cross Street, Headington	Piper Street	To avoid confusion with Cross Street in St Clement’s	1959
Cruel Lane, Cowley	Crowell Road	Removal of unpleasant name	Between 1935 and 1947
East Street, Headington	Bateman Street	To avoid confusion with East Street in Osney	1959
Elms Road, Headington Quarry	Gladstone Road	To avoid confusion with Elms Road, Botley	Between 1947 and 1958
Ferry Road, Jericho	Combe Road	To avoid confusion with Ferry Road, New Marston	Between 1958 and 1962
George Street, Cowley	Hendred Street	To avoid confusion with each other and with George Street in central Oxford	Between 1947 and 1958
George Street, St Clements	Cave Street		Between 1947 and 1958
George Street, Summertown	Middle Way		Between 1947 and 1958
Green Lane, North Oxford	Squitchey Lane	To avoid confusion with Green Road in Headington	Between 1935 and 1947
Green Road, Wolvercote	Wolvercote Green	To avoid confusion with Green Road in Headington	Between 1935 and 1947
Grove Street	Magpie Lane	To avoid confusion with Grove Street in Summertown and remove disreputable name (Grove = Grope etc.)	1920s
Grove Lane	Kybald Street		1920s
Henley Road	Iffley Road	Name given to the part of the road being developed	mid-19th century
High Street, Headington Quarry	Quarry High Street	To avoid confusion with each other and with Oxford’s High Street	1942
High Street, New Headington	New High Street		1942
High Street, Old Headington	Old High Street		1942
High Street, St Clements	St Clements Street		1942
High Street, St Thomas	St Thomas’ Street		Between 1947 and 1958
King Street, Central Oxford	Merton Street	Rationalizaton of various names for different parts of the street	?
Manor Road, Old Headington	Osler Road	To avoid confusion with Manor Road in East Oxford	1959
New Road, Headington	Kennett Road	To avoid confusion with New Road in central Oxford	1959
Park Place	South end of Banbury Road	Renamed St Giles Road east c.1860, and then standardized
Pembroke Street, St Clements	Rectory Road	To avoid confusion with Pembroke Street, St Aldate’s	1959
Redland Road, Northway	Elizabeth Place	To honour the Queen’s Silver Jubilee	1977
St Giles Road East	Banbury Road	To avoid confusion with St Giles Street, and to rationlize road numbering
St Giles Road West	Woodstock Road
St John’s Road North Oxford	St Bernard’s Road	To avoid confusion with St John Street	1960
St Mary Hall Lane	Oriel Street	Change of name of college	By 1850
St Mary’s Road, Headington Quarry	Quarry Hollow	To avoid confusion with St Mary’s Road in East Oxford	1959
Skimmery Hall Lane	Oriel Street	Rationalizaton: Skimmery Hall no longer existed	1838
South Street, Headington	Gardiner Street	To avoid confusion with South Street, Osney	1959
Union Street, Jericho	Hart Street	To avoid confusion with Union Street in east Oxford
Western Road, Headington	Holyoake Road	To avoid confusion with Western Road in Grandpont	1959
William Street, East Oxford	Tyndale Street	To avoid confusion with each other and with William Street in New Marston	1959
William Street, Headington	Wilberforce Street		1959

There were many streets in St Ebbe’s with names also used in other places (e.g. Albert Street, Charles Street, New Street, Penson’s Gardens, Princes Street, Union Street); but these were not changed in 1959, as the whole parish was due to be swept away for redevelopment anyway.

Terrace and house names

Long roads leading out of Oxford tended to be developed piecemeal, so they could not at first be numbered. Thus single villas were given individual names, and groups of attached houses n terrace names. These names are long-forgotten, but they appear in censuses and in parish registers. It is difficult to identify all the terraces in a long street, and sometimes even after they were numbered they had to be renumbered later. The old terrace signs can often still be seen attached to the houses: Oxford Terrace remains on Bateman Street in Headington, and St Giles Terrace marks Nos. 14–36 Woodstock Road (evens).

Iffley Road: house names and terrace names in the nineteenth century (PDF)

Victoria County History: Article on old Oxford street names