The evolution of the City of Oxford

The plan of Oxford, still reflected in its basic layout, dates from a year or two either side of 900. it is recorded as one of a system of 32 settlements established by Alfred, the Greatest of all medieval town planners, for defence against the Danes. Alfred was king of Wessex but his daughter married the Mercian ruler who controlled the land north of the Thames. It was probably her, with the help of her father’s expert surveyors who laid out the grid for both London and Oxford. The grid of streets, slightly distorted because of existing north/south routes, was surrounded by a defensive ditch and palisade. The streets, some paved with limestone cobbles, divided the land into large blocks. Some of these blocks were given or sold to wealthy rural landlords but there remained large open spaces within the walls. Landlords acquired their plots because the palisaded burh offered security in times of trouble, a place to socialise with other landowners, and an opportunity to trade. This early settlement was a collection of urban manor house surrounded with farm yardw, pens for sheep and cattle and a few huts for labourers and dependants. During the next century because of its position on the borders of three 11th century kingdoms, this modest settlement developed into one of the most important political and commercial towns in England. Between 1015 and 1065 four major councils were held here.

The land within the walls gradually over crowded and the walls were extended to the east, increasing the enclosed area by nearly half. Suburbs grew outside the walls, to the west in St Thomas, along St Giles to the north and near the ford outside Southgate. Large plots along the four main streets in the centre of the town were subdivided and the frontage became an almost unbroken clutter of small shops. Churches stood on several of the major corners and at each of the four main gates. The Saxon tower of St Michael at the Northgate, built in stone, is the only survivor of this period. The arrival of the Norman invaders in 1066 deprived the town of its frontier role and began a decline from which Oxford did not fully recover for 200 years.

No person, place or date can pinpoint the foundation of the University, although when Henry II, after an argument with the French king in 1167, banned English students from studying in Paris, Oxford, with its tradition of learning, was an obvious place for students to come. Early in the 13th century there was already an association of clerks (students) and the first Chancellor of the university was appointed in 1221. before the colleges were founded, students lived in Academic Halls. These Halls were leased by a graduate who made his income by providing board and some teaching to groups of scholars. Halls were located all over the town but most were more concentrated on the eastern side. By 1264 the first three colleges, Merton, Univerisyt and Balliol, had been founded and over the centuries Halls were suppressed or absorbed into the more formally organised and better endowed colleges. The last remaining Hall, St Edmund Hall, only became a college in 1976.

The first contemporary drawing of the town, Agas’s map of 1578, illustrates the dramatic decline of Oxford during the long period of university establishment. The changes, which allowed the embryonic university to dominate the once prosperous merchant and trader’s town, were many and mostly gradual. High tolls, taxes and labour costs encouraged the all important wool industry to move out to the smaller towns in the area. Improved roads and bridges, notably the bridge in Abingdon, and the decline of the river traffic on the Thames above Henley, ended Oxford’s central position on trade routes. As values declined the Abbeys and religious houses were able to acquire more property in the town. As a result of the decline in population large areas of the town became derelict. Houses along George street and Broad Street disappeared and in the area furthest from Carfax to the East there was a particularly large number of abandoned buildings. Colleges such as Merton, University and Queen’s were able to acquire large tracts of land adjacent to their existing sites. Two major college benefactors, William of Wykeham at New College 1379 and William Wayneflete at Magdalen 1458 were able to establish new colleges in this area, the latter taking over buildings of the former St John’s hospital.

By 1578 conditions were right for the rapid growth of the city. New building filled the vacant spaces within the city walls and in the existing suburbs. New houses and cottages were built in waste land in and around the city ditch, particularly in Broad Street and Holywell street to the north. Existing plots were subdivided, extra floor added to many buildings, backlands developed. In the town centre people were thronged to death by crowds squeezing into streets made narrower by expanding shambles, new market buildings and projections from existing shops. In 1610, Carfax Conduit, a fountain of pure water piped from Hinskey, was built obstructing the major cross roads. The conduit was finally removed in 1789 and now stands in Nuneham Park near Oxford.

The most spectacular project was the building of the Bodleian’s Radcliffe Camera and the creation of Radcliffe Square in 17th century. Earlier piecemeal developments had not produced any of the significant civic space in the city favoured by renaissance planners. More important than individual buildings was the dynamic work of the paving commission, set up in 1771 which made the first modern attempt at overall planning. Their projects, generally welcomed at he time removed for ever much that would be admired today. New Road to the west was cut through alongside the castle in 1770. Magdalen Bridge was rebuilt and Iffley Road was constructed in 1778. the greatest loss was of Friar Bacon’s Study, in a building which spanned the road and impeded access to the city from south of Folly Bridge.

The Victorian period retained the medieval street plan and some of the earlier character east of Cornmarket Street, but fundamentally changed the appearance of the old city and ringed it with substantial suburbs. In 1883 William Morris complained that little was unscathed by the fury of thriving shops and progressive colleges. But to many citizens and most tourists many of the developments in the centre, built in the gothic style, are now seen and admired as part of the ancient fabric. The motor vehicle, its manufacture and the roads and parking needed for it, have dominated the planning and growth of 20th century Oxford. With outward expansion restricted by a green belt, the first in the country after London’s, private cars have allowed commuters to live in towns and villages 15 to 20 miles away and still rely on the city for jobs and shopping. In recent years car making in Oxford has declined and been replaced by publishing, science based industry, research and tourism. The University either directly or indirectly associated with most of these activities, has regained a dominant position in the city.

Oxford Brookes University founded in 1891 as the Technical School, now has nearly 10,000 students most of whom live in the town. The new University is however building several large developments of student hostels in and around the main teaching buildings. Schools for local children and many private language schools have grown in recent years. Both universities and many other institutions host conferences and summer schools during the vacations. Cowley is still the main industrial area. A large part of the car factory site is being redeveloped for research facilities and light industry. The brief history shows that Oxford’s development has not always been easy. Periods of growth have been followed by stagnation and decline. Its reputation as a centre of research and scholarship will attract growing numbers of students every years. But unless problems created by overcrowding, traffic congestion are solved the tourists attracted to the historic fabric of the city face difficulties to move.