Polstead Road is a residential road that runs between Kingston Road and

Hayfield Road Hayfield Road is a residential road that runs north-south in Walton Manor, north Oxford, England. Location To the south, the road continues as Kingston Road, Oxford, Kingston Road, although it is blocked to through traffic. Aristotle Lane lea ...

to the west and the Woodstock Road to the east, 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 ...

. Halfway along it forms the southern junction of Chalfont Road. The road is probably named after the village of

Polstead Polstead is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. The village lies northeast of Nayland, southwest of Hadleigh and north of Colchester. It is situated on a small tributary stream of the River Stour. Histor ...

in the county of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...

Overview

The houses in Polstead Road were designed by

Harry Wilkinson Moore Harry Wilkinson Moore, FRIBA (1850–1915) was a Victorian and Edwardian architect. He was the son of Arthur Moore (1814–1873) and Mary Wilkinson (1821–1904), and a nephew of the architects George Wilkinson and William Wilkinson. Care ...

and built between 1887 and 1894. St Margaret's Institute Community Centre was the first building constructed on Polstead Road, following a subscription by parishioners of St Philip and St James Church in 1889 "for the building of a Working Men's Institute, 'to provide rational amusement and instruction for working men of any creed, sect, or opinions, who may thus be kept out of public houses'". The Anchor in Hayfield Road - geograph

The Anchor Inn is located at the corner of

and Polstead Road at the western end. Lawrence house, Oxford

The Lawrence family

The most well-known resident was T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), later known as 'Lawrence of

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Pl ...

'. The son of Thomas Chapman (1846-1919; who became, in 1914,

Sir Thomas Chapman, 7th Baronet Sir Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, 7th Baronet (6 November 1846 – 8 April 1919), was an Anglo-Irish landowner, the last of the Chapman baronets of Killua Castle in County Westmeath, Ireland. For many years he lived under the name of Thomas Ro ...

), an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

nobleman, he was brought up in a house (No. 2) on this road and 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 ...

records the fact. The future Sir Thomas Chapman, the 7th

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

Killua Castle Killua Castle, and the nearby Raleigh Obelisk, are situated near Clonmellon, County Westmeath, Ireland. The present house was built in about 1780 by Sir Benjamin Chapman and consisted of a hall, dining room, oval drawing room, breakfast parlou ...

County Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = , subdivis ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, separated from his wife to live with his daughters' governess, Sarah Junner, also known as Sarah Lawrence. They had five sons and the couple lived under the names of Mr and Mrs Lawrence, moving to No. 2, Polstead Road in the summer of 1896 with the aim that the children could receive a good education for a reasonable cost. T. E. Lawrence attended the

City of Oxford High School for Boys The City of Oxford High School for Boys (a.k.a. Oxford High School for Boys and City of Oxford School) was founded in 1881 by Thomas Hill Green to provide Oxford boys with an education which would enable them to prepare for University. Histor ...

in central Oxford. Here also was born his youngest brother,

A. W. Lawrence Arnold Walter Lawrence (2 May 1900 – 31 March 1991) was a British authority on classical sculpture and architecture. He was Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University in the 1940s, and in the early 1950s in Accra he ...

, who went on to become the

Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology The Laurence Professorship of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge was established in 1930 as one of the offices endowed by the bequest of Sir Perceval Maitland Laurence.Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in the 1940s. The house is a substantial semi-detached red-brick house that had been built approximately six years before the Lawrences moved there. They built a bungalow in the garden especially for Lawrence because the house was not large enough to accommodate the entire family. 2 Polstead Road remained the Lawrence family home until 1921. Lawrence was in residence when he departed for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. In January 2017, it was reported that

Oxford City Council Oxford City Council is the lower-tier local government authority for the city of Oxford in England, providing such services as leisure centres and parking. Social Services, Education and Highways services (amongst others) are provided by Oxfor ...

had failed to gain

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

status for the Lawrence home, leaving its future in doubt. The house was offered for sale in 2018 for £2.95 million.

References

External links

T. E. Lawrence: 2 Polstead Road, Oxford
an

{{coord, 51, 46, 04, N, 1, 16, 04, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Streets in Oxford T. E. Lawrence