Number 17 and Attached Walls

Number 17 is a house built in 1963 by the Architects Co-Partnership, led by Michael Powers, for St John's College in Oxford. The structure is made of concrete block with white facing bricks and features concrete ring beams. The first floor and roof are constructed from internal timber. It has flat roofs with projecting concrete tank housing. Number 17 is smaller than the adjacent houses, Nos. 15 and 16, which were also designed by the same architects, and it is detached.

All sides of the house display concrete ring beams and inset banding in the brickwork, which projects to create a hood over the front door and at the roof level for rainwater hoppers. The house is set behind an earlier stone wall along the street. On the entrance front, the main windows are arranged vertically to form continuous bands, with narrow horizontal windows extending to the corners on the first floor. The rear elevation includes a single-storey addition from 1973 by Cluttons, designed to be sympathetic to the main building's style.

Inside, the house features plastered ceilings, frameless doors, and fitted pine units, including linen cupboards and dressing tables. The ground floor has black quarry tile floors, while the first floor has pine floors. Hallways showcase exposed brick, and there is a timber ladder stair rising in a curved well. A timber-framed conservatory was added in 1996.

This house is part of a carefully designed group of Fellows' houses for St John's College, Oxford. These buildings are notable as rare domestic works from this prominent architectural practice of the post-war period. The grey brick and concrete materials present a Brutalist interpretation of the traditional stone colors found in Oxford, while being tactfully screened from the street.