66 Banbury Road is a detached Victorian villa in North Oxford built in 1869 by Frederick Codd.Tanis Hinchcliffe, North Oxford (London: Yale University Press, 1992), p.217. The villa is one of the largest structures in the suburb and is particularly distinctive due to its prominent location at the corner of Banbury and Norham Roads, as well as its tall 6-story Italianate tower, which is a local landmark.Nikolaus Pevsner & Jennifer Sherwood, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (first published 1974, this edition London: Yale University Press, 2002), p.319.
History Originally named 'St Catherine's', the house, which sits in a one-acre plot, was first leased to Mrs Catherine Fry in 1874.Oxford Journal, 4 August 1894, p.4. Mrs Fry occupied the house from its construction to 1894. Early 20th-century residents included Dr and Mrs A.A. Prankerd of Manchester College.'County News', Evesham Standard & West Midland Observer, 26 October 1912, p.5.
In 1930, Wolsey Hall, Oxford, acquired No.66 and operated its home tutoring business from the site.'The Wolsey Hall Story', https://wolseyhalloxford.org.uk/about-us/, accessed 27 May 2019. This marked the end of the building's residential use and its permanent transition to institutional purposes. As of 2019, No.66 is home to the Oxford English Centre and the University of Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.'Contact Us', https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/contact/, accessed 27 May 2019.
In 2008, No.66 was designated a Grade II listed building.
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