St Ebbes is a district of central

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

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 ...

, southwest of Carfax. St Ebbes Street runs south from the western end of Queen Street. __TOC__

Overview

The area takes its name from the parish church of St Ebbe's, dedicated to Saint Æbbe the Elder. The name was first recorded in about 1005, when the church and other nearby property was granted to

Eynsham Abbey Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlie ...

. The parish extended to the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. By 1279 the area was known for property inhabited by the poorer townsfolk, and remained so until the middle of the 20th century. In 1818 gas works were built on the north bank of the

in St Ebbes, to supply the city of Oxford with

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

. St Ebbes expanded significantly in the 19th century, and by 1882 there was no room to expand the gas works, and new

gasholder A gas holder or gasholder, also known as a gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or town gas is natural gas storage, stored near atmospheric pressure at room temperature, ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows th ...

s had to be built on the south bank of the river. A railway bridge (the

Gasworks Bridge The Gasworks Bridge, also known as the Old Gasworks Bridge, is an iron bridge across the River Thames at Oxford in England. It is a pedestrian bridge linking St Ebbes to the Grandpont nature reserve. It crosses the river on the reach between Iff ...

) was built across the river to connect the gas works to the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

line. The gas works were closed in 1960. The area was redeveloped between the 1950s and the 1980s.Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 328 A new main road, Thames Street, was built through the area in 1968. Between 1970 and 1972 the Westgate Shopping Centre was built in St Ebbes, and much of the rest of the area became car parks. Only a few residential properties remain to the north of Thames Street. There is a small housing estate between Thames Street and the river, known as St Ebbes by the River. St Ebbe's Street runs south from Queen Street past Pembroke Street (on the right), to Brewer Street (on the right). There the street becomes "Littlegate". St Ebbe's

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

in Pennyfarthing Place, on the corner with St Ebbes Street is now a conservative

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

congregation. St Ebbe's

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Primary School is south of the river, outside St Ebbe's parish. The

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

photographer Henry Taunt was born at Penson's Gardens, St Ebbes, on 14 June 1842.

Overview

See also

References

Sources and further reading

External links