{{Short description|Street in North Oxford, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Use British English|date=January 2017}} thumb|The brightly coloured terraced houses in Observatory Street [[File:Belsyre Court, Oxford.JPG|thumb|Belsyre Court, a 1936 Grade II listed apartment block at the eastern end of Observatory Street]] [[File:Green Templeton College.jpg|thumb|upright|The Radcliffe Observatory to the south, after which the street is named]] '''Observatory Street''' is a street in Oxford, England. It links at the eastern end Woodstock Road (opposite Bevington Road and St Anne's College and nearly opposite St Antony's College) in central North Oxford and at the western end Walton Street and the Jericho area of Oxford.<ref name="hibbert">{{cite book | title=The Encyclopaedia of Oxford | publisher=Macmillan | chapter=Observatory Street | year=1988 | page=288 | isbn=0-333-39917-X | editor-last=Hibbert | editor-first=Christopher|editor-link=Christopher Hibbert }}</ref>
The street borders the north side of Green Templeton College, one of the Oxford University colleges, which has some student accommodation in the street.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/students/college-life/accommodation/our-rooms/couple-family-rooms/observatory-street/ | title=Observatory Street | publisher=Green Templeton College, Oxford | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref> The street is named after the Radcliffe Observatory (completed in 1794), which now forms a centrepiece for the College.<ref name="hibbert" /> To the north is St Bernard's Road. The street lies within the Walton Manor Conservation Area and as such is of interest for protection by the Oxford Preservation Trust.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.oxfordpreservation.org.uk/20-observatory-street | title=20 Observatory Street | publisher=Oxford Preservation Trust | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref>
'''Adelaide Street''' branches off Observatory Street partway along and runs parallel to the north at the western end, also connecting with Walton Street.<ref name="historicengland">{{cite web| url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/ICB01/02/094 | title=Location plan of the Lord Napier, showing its proximity to Observatory Street and Adelaide Street | publisher=Historic England | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref>
==History== Observatory Street, developed from 1834,<ref name="symonds">{{cite book| title=The Changing Faces of North Oxford | volume=Book Two | last=Symonds | first=Ann Spokes | year=1998 | publisher=Robert Boyd Publications|location=Witney | pages=13, 34 | isbn=1 899536 33 7 }}</ref> mainly consists of terraced houses directly on the street, many characterized by brightly painted stuccoed fronts in a variety of colours, especially on the south side of the street, which is very late Georgian.<ref name="pevsner">{{cite book| title=The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |authorlink2=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1974 | publisher=Penguin Books | page=322 | isbn=0-14-071045-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/davemorris/438525032/ | title=Observatory Street composite | website=Flickr | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref> Once built as small dwellings for poorer inhabitants of Oxford, often workers on early railway and canal construction, the houses now command high prices because of the central location of the street, within easy walking distance of the city centre and close to the Oxford University Humanities and Mathematics site on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/oxford/observatory-street/ox2-6ew/ | title=House prices in Observatory Street, Oxford OX2 6EW | website=Zoopla | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref>
thumb|left|Lord Napier House (left) and 50 Observatory Street (right) Lord Napier House is a large house and former Hall's Oxford Brewery public house, of historic interest in Observatory Street.<ref name="historicengland" /><ref>{{cite web| url=https://heritagesearch.oxfordshire.gov.uk/images/POX0250777 | title=The Lord Napier, Observatory Street, Oxford, May 1941, 5.1941 | publisher=Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxfordshire County Council | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref> The original building was erected in 1871 but it was replaced in 1930.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19846428.remember-oxfords-lord-napier-pub/ | title=Do you remember Oxford's Lord Napier pub? | newspaper=Oxford Mail | date=17 January 2022 | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref>
The former St Paul's Vicarage was built in 1905 at 1A Observatory Street.<ref name="oxfordhistory">{{cite web| url=https://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/streets/inscriptions/north/st_paul_vicarage.html | title=Oxford Inscriptions: St Paul's Vicarage, Observatory Street | work=Oxford History | location=UK | access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref> The house includes a stone Latin inscription: {{center|A. M. D. G. ''[Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam]''<br/> POSUIT<br/> EP[ISCOPU]S RADINGENSIS<br/> AD XVI KAL SEP MCMV<br/> }} This translates as "To the greater glory of God, the Bishop of Reading laid [this stone] on 17 August 1905". St Paul's Church, nearby in Walton Street, ceased to function as a church in 1964. Shortly after this, the house ceased to act as its vicarage.<ref name="oxfordhistory" />
Belsyre Court is located on the north side at the east end of Observatory Street, Woodstock Road, and the south side at the east end of St Bernard's Road.<ref name="symonds" /> It was designed by Ernest R. Barrow and built in 1936. Belsyre Court was the first large block of flats in Oxford.<ref name="symonds" />
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==External links== * {{commonscat inline}}
{{coord|51.76119|N|1.26541|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=title}}
Category:1834 establishments in England Category:Streets in Oxford Category:Green Templeton College, Oxford