Banbury Road[1] is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, with its local shopping centre. Parallel and to the west is the Woodstock Road, which it meets at the junction with St Giles'. To the north, Banbury Road meets the Oxford Ring Road at a roundabout. The road is designated the A4165 (which continues for a short distance as Oxford Road to Kidlington). Prior to the building of the M40 motorway extension in 1990, the road formed part of the A423 from Maidenhead to Coventry.[citation needed]
One of the university's former women's colleges, St Anne's College backs onto Banbury Road and another, St Hugh's College, flanks the road further up. Kellogg College and Wycliffe Hall, which are also part of the university are situated on Banbury Road, near to the junction with Bevington Road. The Independent Sixth Form of d'Overbroeck's College is housed in both the Swan Building at 111 and the adjacent number 113 which was, by the turn of the 20th century, occupied by a Mr R. Lamb Abbott MA who advertised for students to take instruction in "a course of lectures" over four weeks or so to enable them to sit their responsions and thus matriculate at the university.[3]
Wychwood School, an independent girls' school, is at 74 Banbury Road. Established in 1897 as Miss Batty's School for the daughters of Oxford dons, from 1898 to 1907, the school was housed at 77 Banbury Road – a "charming Regency house" – where residents Miss A.S. Batty and Miss Margaret Lee MA taught a handful of day girls. Miss Lee would later acquire ownership of number 77. The school at that time also provided accommodation for young women sitting examinations who were members of the Society of Oxford Home Students – later St Anne's College, Oxford where Miss Lee tutored from 1913 to 1936. 77 Banbury Road was religious in nature: Miss Batty had an academic interest in religious matters and Miss Lee was the granddaughter of an Anglicanvicar.[4][5][6]
BBC Oxford is also based on Banbury Road and is home to the local televised news output and BBC Radio Oxford. In early 1970 the BBC Oxford studios were actually located further down at 242–254 Banbury Road (now a branch of Marks & Spencer), but were later moved to 269 in 1989 as local media services within BBC Oxford expanded.
Jesse Elliston, the proprietor of what became Oxford's leading department store, Elliston & Cavell, died in the Banbury Road in 1853 at the age of only 47.
^"London's National Portrait Gallery – Miss Lee". NPG – London. Retrieved 13 April 2021. By this time [1896] Margaret had made a plan to take rooms in Oxford for both of them and help Miss [A.S.] Batty to establish a school for girls. This plan was successfully carried out. Margaret and Miss Batty established themselves at 41 Banbury Road and in January I897 a few pupils, daughters of Oxford dons, formed a nucleus of what was later to become Wychwood School. The little school flourished, pupils flocked in, more rooms in the house were added till, in 1898, the lease and later the ownership of 77 Banbury Road were acquired. Miss Batty's health improved marvellously and her wonderful power as a teacher began to be felt. 77 Banbury Road, a charming Regency house with a little garden stretching along North Parade, swarmed with school-children by day, and there were usually a few young women living there while reading for various examinations. The school soon overflowed and moved to Park Crescent in 1906...To return to Margaret's academic career at Oxford: she held her teaching appointments under the Association for the Education of Women and in 1913 was appointed Tutor to the Oxford Home Students (later St. Anne's College) and she held this until she retired in 1936...MARGARET LUCY LEE was born on 14 July 1871, the eldest child of Thomas William Lee, son of Joseph Lee, of Redbrook House, Flint, and Margaret Anne, daughter of Rev. C. H. Lyon, of Glen Ogil, the seat for 500 years of the cadet branch of the Bowes-Lyons of Glamis Castle.
^Kloester, J. (2013). Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller. Arrow Books. p. 42. ISBN9780434020713. Retrieved 12 April 2022. Later, Carola and Joanna both went to Miss Batty's School for the daughters of Oxford dons (later called the Wychwood School) where they created a ...