Oxford street name changes

Streets with changed names

Above: Road sign for Hockmore Street in Cowley from the old part of the street, which no longer exists.
The newer part survives and curves around the back of the shopping centre and continues to Barns Road (map)

Below: Some street signs, such as this one for Rectory Road in east Oxford,
helpfully also give the former name of the road

Rectory Road

The table below lists twentieth-century changes to Oxford street names and is designed to help people to find streets in directories and newspapers prior to 1960. For older Oxford street names such as Butcher Row (Queen Street) and Fish Street (the top end of St Aldate's), see the Street-Names section in the Victoria County History of Oxford.

The changes were made to avoid confusion, as the absorption into the city of former villages such as Cowley, Headington, and Summertown meant that many street names were duplicated: there were suddenly six High Streets in Oxford listed in Kelly's Directory for 1930. (There could have been seven, but High Street, St Clement's had been renamed in the nineteenth century). Some of the names survived until the 1941 directory, but in 1942 there was just the High itself left. The seven Church Streets or Lanes in Oxford, however, had to wait until 1955 before being renamed. Usually it was the suburb that had to change its street name, but there were exceptions: for example Grove Street in Oxford went back to its original name of Magpie Lane, so Grove Street in Summertown survived.

There were also many streets in St Ebbe’s that had names that were duplicated in other parts of the city (e.g. Albert Street, Charles Street, New Street, Penson’s Gardens, Princes Street, and Union Street); but these were not changed in the 1950s, as almost the whole parish was then due to be demolished for redevelopment.

Some warnings

Many Oxford roads were known as “New Road” for a year or two until they were officially named. This name is mostly forgotten, but All Saints Road in Headington is recorded as New Road on the 1921 Ordnance Survey map
Other new roads were given temporary names that lasted less than a year: e.g. Leopold Street was Stanton Road; St Mary's Road was split in two as German Street and St John Street, and the part of Hurst Street between James Street and Bullingdon Road was War Street.
The house numbers as well as the street names may have changed: see also Street numbering in Oxford
The south end of the Woodstock and Banbury Roads were called St Giles' Road West and St Giles' Road East in the nineteenth century
Many separately named terraces on new roads were later renumbered in sequence. North Parade Terrace, for example, is now 11–20 Winchester Road. Even more confusingly, the terrace of houses at 63–77 Banbury Road was known as North Parade at the same time as the street that was and still is called North Parade.

Original Name	New (present) name	Notes	Date
Albert Road, Summertown	Hobson Road	To avoid confusion with another Albert Street in Jericho	1961
Alexandra Road, Headington	Gathorne Road	To avoid confusion with another Alexandra Road in West Oxford	1959
Alfred Street and Alfred Lane, St Giles	Pusey Street and Pusey Lane	To avoid confusion with another Alfred Street off the High Street	c.1927
Barrack Road, Headington	The Slade	Presumably to avoid confusion with Barracks Lane	1931
Brasenose Lane, Cowley	Brasenose Driftway	To avoid confusion with another Brasenose Lane in central Oxford	1935
Catherine Street Central Oxford	Catte Street	To avoid confusion with another Catherine Street in east Oxford. (This was a return to the street's original name, which was considered undignified by Victorians: see page on Catte Street)	1930
Cemetery Road, Cowley (formerly New Road)	Church Cowley Road	Presumably to avoid confusion with another Cemetery Road in Headington, which retained the name but not for long	1930
Cemetery Road Headington	Dunstan Road	Changed after a campaign by Alfred Emden to remove the unpleasant name and to commemorate the Saxon settlement	1943
Charles Street	Turn Again Lane	Reversion to old name to avoid confusion with another Charles Street in east Oxford	1972
Church Lane New Hinksey	Vicarage Lane	To avoid confusion with another Church Lane in Wolvercote	1955
Church Lane Old Headington	Larkins's Lane St Andrew’s Lane	To avoid confusion with another Church Lane in Wolvercote	Late 1920s 1955
Church Street Cowley	Beauchamp Lane	To avoid confusion with each other (and with Church Street in St Ebbe’s, which kept the name but later disappeared)	1955
Church Street Holywell	St Cross Road		Nineteenth century
Church Street New Headington	Perrin Street		1955
Church Street New Hinksey	Vicarage Road		1955
Church Street Old Headington	St Andrew’s Road		1955
Church Street St Thomas	St Thomas's Street
Church Street Summertown	Rogers Street		1955
Coach & Horses Lane Central Oxford	Later King Street, and now the part of Merton Street at right-angles to the High Street		1838
Cross Street Headington	Piper Street	To avoid confusion with another Cross Street in St Clement’s	1959
Cruel Lane Cowley	Crowell Road	Removal of unpleasant name	1939
Donnington Road East Oxford	Silver Road	Presumably to avoid confusion with Donnington Bridge Road	1960
East Street Headington	Bateman Street	To avoid confusion with another East Street in Osney	1959
Edward Street East Oxford	Hawkins Street	Probably to avoid confusion with King Edward Street	1900
Elms Road Headington Quarry	Gladstone Road	Possibly to avoid confusion with another Elms Road in Botley	c.1957
Ferry Road Jericho	Combe Road	To avoid confusion with another Ferry Road in New Marston	1959
George Street Cowley	Hendred Street	To avoid confusion with each other and also with George Street in central Oxford, which kept the name	1955
George Street St Clements	Cave Street		1955
George Street Summertown	Middle Way		1955
Green Lane North Oxford	Squitchey Lane	To avoid confusion with another Green Road in Headington	1937
Green Road Wolvercote	Wolvercote Green	To avoid confusion with another Green Road in Headington	1941
Grove Street	Magpie Lane	To avoid confusion with another Grove Street in Summertown, and remove disreputable origin of name (Grove = Grope etc.)	1920s
Grove Lane	Kybald Street		1920s
High Street Cowley	Between Towns Road	To avoid confusion with each other, and of course with Oxford’s famous High Street	1931/2
High Street Headington Quarry	Quarry 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		1862
High Street St Thomas	St Thomas’ Street		c.1955
High Street Wolvercote	Godstow Road		1931/2
John Street / German Street East Oxford	St Mary's Road	Not officially named until some years after it was built	1874
King Street Central Oxford	Merton Street	This ran from High Street down to the corner where Merton Street started, but became part of Merton Street, possibly to avoid confusion with King Street in Jericho and King Edward Street. Details of numbering here	Early 1900s
Main Road New Marston	Marston Road	Originally only the few houses in St Clement's parish were listed under Marston Road	c.1937
Manor Road (formerly Sandy Lane) Old Headington	Osler Road	Sandy Lane to c.1914, and then Manor Road as it started to get built up. The name changed again in 1959 to avoid confusion with the other Manor Road in Oxford (In the early 1930s the name Osler Road was given to a different street, but by 1935 that was renamed Woodlands Road)	1959
New Road Headington	Kennett Road	To avoid confusion with another New Road in central Oxford (All Saints Road in Headington was also called New Road for a short time)	1959
New Inn Hall Street east	St Michael's Street	Before New Inn Hall Street was extended to George Street in 1872, it turned sharply right to Cornmarket. Initially both the new extension running north and the ancient road running east were both called New Inn Hall Street (more information)	c.1900
Park Place	South end of Banbury Road	Renamed St Giles Road east in c.1860, but eventually became part of the Banbury Road
Pembroke Street St Clements	Rectory Road	To avoid confusion with another Pembroke Street in St Aldate’s	1959
Pile Road Cowley	Oxford Road Cowley	The stretch between the city boundary and Hollow Way was known as both Pile Road and Cowley Road in the early twentieth century	1930
Pitt Road off Abingdon Road	Chatham Road	Renamed after the title of William Pitt (1st Earl of Chatham), to avoid confusion with Pitts Road in Headington Quarry	1961
Rackham's Lane	St Margaret's Road	Named after the new church	1893
Redland Road Northway	Elizabeth Place	To honour the Queen’s Silver Jubilee	1977
St Giles Road East St Giles Road West	Banbury Road Woodstock Road	Presumably both to avoid confusion with St Giles Street and to rationalize road numbering	c.1870
St John’s Road North Oxford	St Bernard’s Road	Presumably to avoid confusion with St John Street (St John's College in 1555 took over the premises of St Bernard's College)	1960
St John Baptist's Street (abbreviated to St John's Street)	Merton Street	Probably to avoid confusion with St John Street in Oxford	Mid-1800s
St Mary’s Road, Headington Quarry	Quarry Hollow	To avoid confusion with another St Mary’s Road in East Oxford	1959
Skimmery Hall Lane	Oriel Street		1838
South Street Headington	Gardiner Street	To avoid confusion with another South Street in Osney	1959
Southern Road Headington	St Leonard's Road	St Leonard's Road had existed in Quarry village since 1934, but when Southern Road in New Headington was joined to it in 1958, it lost its name	1958
Stock Street then Temple Street Temple Cowley	Temple Road	To avoid confusion with another Temple Street in east Oxford	1930
Union Street Jericho	Hart Street	To avoid confusion with another Union Street in east Oxford	1958
Walton Place	Walton Street, Part of	The present Nos. 1–35 Walton Street	c.1855
War Street East Oxford	Part of Hurst Street	The part between James Street and Bullingdon Road in 1876	By 1900
Western Road Headington	Holyoake Road	To avoid confusion with another Western Road in Grandpont	1959
William Street East Oxford	Tyndale Road	To avoid confusion with each other and with a third William Street in New Marston, which kept its name	1959
William Street Headington	Wilberforce Street		1959
Worcester Terrace	Richmond Road	Possibly to avoid confusion with Worcester Place	1899

Fuller list of Oxford street name changes, compiled by John Talbot (PDF)

Church Lane at the Westgate Centre A most unlikely looking Church Lane at the Castle Street entrance to the new Westgate Centre

After swallowing surrounding villages, Oxford had three Church Lanes (in New Hinksey, Old Headington, and Wolvercote) and seven Church Streets (in Cowley, Holywell, New Headington, Old Headington, New Hinksey, Summertown, and St Ebbe's). These were reduced to one Church Lane (in Wolvercote) and one Church Street (in St Ebbe's). In 2017 the Westgate Centre introduced a second Church Lane (despite it being the third most common street name in England and already in use in Oxford).

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)

Early proposal to change some duplicated street names rejected

Proposal in 1861 to change street names

On 6 July 1861 Jackson’s Oxford Journal reported (right) on the Street Commissioners’ meeting held the previous Wednesday, where they proposed to alter some duplicated street names that were causing a problem.

The idea was rejected because “it would cause more inconvenience than it would obviate”.

The rejected suggestions of 1861 were as follows: All these streets were subsequently renamed, but not as originally proposed

Rejected: Change of name of Pembroke Street, St Clement’s to Pembroke Road.
Eventually in 1955 the duplicate Pembroke Street in east Oxford was renamed to Rectory Road
Rejected: Change of name of George Street, St Clement’s to James Street.
The following year the name James Street was instead given to a new street in east Oxford, and the duplicate George Street in St Clement’s had to wait until 1955 before it was given the name Cave Street
Rejected: Change of name of King Street, Jericho to Little Clarendon Street.
Eventually it was the King Street in central Oxford that eventually changed its name to Merton Street to match the continuation around the corner, and Little Clarendon Street was recycled as a new name for Workhouse Lane
Rejected: Change of name of Alfred Street off the High Street to Bear Street.
Eventually in 1924 it was the Alfred Street in St Giles’ that changed its name to Pusey Street

Duplicated names already a problem in 1831

Renaming letter

Even before Oxford swallowed surrounding villages, there was some duplication of street names. Here “Antiquarius” in a letter published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 16 April 1831 remarks on the fact that there was now a St John Street in Jericho as well as the one to the north of Beaumont Street. His suggestion of Alfred Street is odd, as by 1829 there was already an Alfred Street in St Giles' (now renamed Pusey Street), To confuse matters, when the Alfred Lodge of Freemasons opened their new Masonic Hall off the south side of the High Street at the end of 1832, the road there was renamed Alfred Street.

None of these suggestions was taken up, and when a Henry Road eventually did materialized in west Oxford, the Henry concerned was not a King, but a Kingerlee.