I.1 Bainton Road, Phoebe Court
General Overview
This road borders the North and West of the St John College playing fields.
The houses on the Western side extend to the Oxford Canal via long gardens. Most are substantial, semi-detached houses with typical North Oxford steeply pitched roofs. Many owners have enlarged their houses with back extensions and loft conversions, visible from the towpath on the opposite bank of the canal.
At the Southern end of the road, a number of houses mainly date from the 1930s with some modern in-fills, both detached and terraced.
At the Northern end, there are several large detached architect-designed houses, some very recently built.
Phoebe Court is an enclave of six undistinguished houses build in the1990s. These all back on to the canal.
History
Bainton Road was laid out in 1906 and largely developed with houses of a uniform design by 1931. For a brief period there was a workshop for Morris Motors in the road. Pheobe Court was built in the 1990s.
Issues
– In common with much of the NF Area, parking is a major problem. As a result, many front gardens have been transformed into car parks, reducing the amenity of the road
– Increased traffic due to Bainton Road being a ‘rat-run’ for local schools
– New nursery school will generate more peak time traffic
– The pavements are quite narrow and not level
– Bainton Road is part of Cyclox Route No 5 but has no markings, which results in near collisions between cyclists and cars
Assets
– A quiet neighbourhood with attractive open views over St John’s sports field
– The proximity to the Oxford Canal
– Good access to public transport on the Woodstock Road
Guidance for new development
– There are no obvious sites ripe for development (the nursery school was the last vacant plot)
– Some in-fills in the gardens of large houses near the Woodstock Road may occur
– The canal frontage is a community asset which may need to be protected from some overbearing extension
Download this Character Assessment as a pdf
Download the original volunteer written character assessment as a pdf: Bainton Road
