Belbroughton Road is a residential road in the suburb of

North Oxford North Oxford is a suburban part of the city of Oxford in England. It was owned for many centuries largely by St John's College, Oxford and many of the area's Victorian houses were initially sold on leasehold by the College. Overview The le ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The road runs east from

Banbury Road Banbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' Street, Oxford, St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, Oxford, Summertown, with its local shoppi ...

. At the other end is Oxford High School, a girls' school. South from the road about halfway along is

Northmoor Road Northmoor Road is a residential street in North Oxford, England. Location Northmoor Road runs north-south, parallel to and east of the Banbury Road. At the northern end is a junction with Belbroughton Road and to the south is a junction with ...

, where

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

lived for a while in the 1930s. At the eastern end is

Charlbury Road Charlbury Road is a road in North Oxford, England, running to the east of and parallel with the Banbury Road. At the southern end of the road there is a junction with Bardwell Road, close to the Dragon School. 1, 3, 5 and 7 Charlbury Road is ...

. The road includes some large notable detached houses. Amongst them are houses designed by Christopher Wright in the neo-Georgian style. For example, No. 1 Belbroughton Road (built in 1926) is essentially a simple rectangular design, but including three very distinctive red-brick arches as a feature on the front facade, with rendering within each of the arches.

Notable residents

Sir

Francis Simon Sir Francis Simon (2 July 1893 – 31 October 1956), was a German and later British physical chemist and physicist who devised the gaseous diffusion method, and confirmed its feasibility, of separating the isotope Uranium-235 and thus made a m ...

(1893–1956), the leading

physical chemist Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical me ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, and Fellow of

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, lived at 10 Belbroughton Road. This is now commemorated with a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

on the house, installed by the

Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board established in 1999 was the brainchild of Sir Hugo Brunner, then Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, and Edwin Townsend-Coles, Chairman of the Oxford Civic Society. The Board is an autonomous voluntary body whose ...

. The plaque was unveiled on 10 December 2003 by

Sir Martin Wood Sir Martin Francis Wood, CBE, FRS, HonFREng (19 April 1927 – 23 November 2021) was a British engineer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Oxford Instruments, one of the first spin-out companies from the University of Oxford and still one of the ...

, who previously lived in Northmoor Road, adjoining Belbroughton Road. No. 10 was the home of the Simon family from 1933 until the death of Lady Simon in 1999. They received many refugees at the house and provided hospitality for scientists, former students, and others from around the world.

Poetry

The road was mentioned in the first line of a poem (''May-Day Song for

'') by the

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Sir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

:Brooke, Jocelyn,
A Biography of John Betjeman
'

:''Belbroughton Road is bonny, and pinkly bursts the spray'' :''Of prunus and forsythia across the public way,'' :''…''

References

Streets in Oxford {{England-road-stub