2-4, Charlbury Road

A pair of semi-detached houses, designed by Stephen Salter and built by Henry Wild in 1908–9, with minor subsequent alterations.

The houses are constructed in red brick with part roughcast walls. The tile-hung gabled wings and dormers are distinctive features. A tall gabled centrepiece displays dramatic half-timbering in a waved pattern, with pargetting depicting scrolls, sea-creatures and shells. The roof is plain tile with waved bargeboards and brick stacks. All windows are white-painted wooden casements with glazing bars.

The building follows an irregular U-plan in the Domestic Revival style, arranged symmetrically with a hipped roof over the 2-storey and attic main range and projecting side wings of 1½ storeys. A catslide roof descends from the main range over the angles to form porches on wooden posts with shaped brackets and Ionic capitals. Panelled doors have small-pane top glazing. The central gable features a partitioned lunette with steeply waving half-timbering and pargetting intended to evoke a grand gatehouse; notably, this decoration does not appear on Salter's original drawings, though the pargetting style closely resembles the carved ashlar decoration on his gables at Lloyds Bank, Carfax (1900–1). The side wings have jetties projecting over ground-floor bays and first-floor oriels. Flat-roofed dormers pierce the main roof—these are long and narrow with four lights.

External alterations include a narrow side extension to No. 4 and enlargement of its rear French doors, small rear extensions to both houses, and a small garage added to the side of No. 2.

The interior of No. 4 has been altered to open up rear ground-floor rooms, with cornicing renewed following flood damage. Original features remain: Art Nouveau fireplaces with green tiles in brick pattern or with relief decoration; a plate rack in the former study; a splat baluster staircase; lunette glazing with wobbly glass and pale green margins; and original panelled doors and frames. The interior of No. 2 has not been inspected.

A small garage to the side of No. 2, dating from 1928, is of interest as an early example of extremely narrow-width garage construction.

The pair stands within the North Oxford suburb, which developed from around 1860 on land leased by St. John's College. The College exercised strict control over development, vetting all designs for quality and ensuring adequate front walls, railings and rear gardens. Development of the southern half of Charlbury Road occurred between 1905 and 1909.