Oxford is the oldest university city in England, situated some 50 miles (80 km) to the west of London founded in the 12th Century.
Oxford's famous "Dreaming Spires" refer to the medieval churches and colleges that dominate the bustling modern town in all their Gothic splendour.
Jericho has a long history with the name dating back as far as 1650 when the Jericho Tavern in Walton Street was built. In the 17th Century, people coming to Oxford from the north after the city gates were shut could take refuge in 'The Jericho House'. This inn, which was subsequently rebuilt in its three-storey form in 1818, is now called 'The Jericho Tavern' Located just outside the old city wall, it was originally a place for travellers to rest. The area was originally an industrial area which grew up because of the presence of the Oxford Canal, which arrived in 1790. Ironworks, wharves and the Oxford University Press were based there and its residential streets are mostly two-up, two-down Victorian workers' houses. With backstreets of 1930s terraced housing and many restaurants, it has become a hugely popular location for student and London commuter accommodation.
Their houses were small and basic, lacking even basic drainage. As a result most of Jericho was little more than a squalid slum and vulnerable to outbreaks of cholera. The worst area was a block of small houses behind the Jericho House in an area called 'Jericho Gardens'. These tenements were demolished in 1937 and the land they stood on is now occupied by the school.
Initially, building was only possible on the higher land closer to Walton Street. It was only after the 1860s, as the land closer to the canal was steadily drained, that the area below Albert Street was developed. This included the building on Canal Street of St. Barnabas Church (1870)— whose arrival provided some moral uplift and started to dispel the area's sordid reputation.
Cranham Street Jericho c1910
This view, taken looking towards walton street has been totally transformed, but the public house on the left (radcliffe Arms) is today virtually unchanged as is the building visible on Walton Street (now the Jericho Cafe). All the rest visibile in the street was demolished in the 1960s and replaced with maisonettes. Note tea on sale at 1/4 pound (7p), and the shaving salon on the right of the street.
The popularity of the area increased in the 19th century with the establishment of local industry in the area. The Lucy ironworks and Oxford University Press, Oxford’s largest employer in the nineteenth century attracted large numbers of workers to the area and resulted in the construction of the terraced town cottages for which Jericho is synonymous. Many of these artisan cottages have been renovated and enlarged over the years by discerning home owners keen to preserve the style and character of the Victorian era.
An episode of ITV drama series Inspector Morse, starring British actor John Thaw called "The Dead of Jericho", was partially filmed in the streets of Jericho and in the iconic 'Bookbinders Arms' pub on the corner of Victor Street.
Radcliffe
The Radcliffe Arms was named after the nearby hospital The Radcliffe Infirmary which was built around 1770. The Hospital was named after Dr John Radcliffe (1650-1714), physician to Queen Anne. The honorary physicians and surgeons gave their services free, maintaining themselves by private practice, although there were junior doctors on the paid staff. The hospital depended on voluntary giving, and larger donations conferred the status of Governor, with the right to elect officers and recommend patients. A patient could only be admitted on a Governor's 'turn', a system which was ended officially in 1884.
The hospital opened on St. Luke's Day (18 October) 1770. On 30 November 1770, the Bishop of Oxford consecrated the Radcliffe Infirmary's burial ground (long since buried itself), and the congregation prayed that it might be the 'only useless part of the Establishment'. The hospital stood on a five acre site in the open fields of St Giles, which was then well away from the city, and had its own three acre garden. There were just two wards, male and female, but such was the demand by patients that another was opened by the end of the year and three more in October 1771. Such heavy use might seem surprising given the fact that many conditions were barred by the rules. Patients suffering from smallpox (or any infectious disease), epilepsy, ulcers, inoperable cancers, tuberculosis or dropsy were not admitted; neither were pregnant women, children under seven (except for major operations) or the mentally ill.
In 1919 the Infirmary purchased the Manor House estate, on which the John Radcliffe Hospital was eventually to be built. When the Churchill Hospital was no longer needed by the American forces who had used it during the first years of the Second World War, it was taken over the Radcliffe Infirmary.
On 27 January 1941, the first dose of penicillin was given intravenously to man at the Radcliffe Infirmary, and on 1 July that year the first accident service in Great Britain began.
In 1989 the Radcliffe Infirmary was one of three hospitals in the country used for the Electronic Data Exchange pilot scheme which allowed hospitals to order ward supplies directly from the manufacturer.
With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, the Radcliffe Infirmary surrendered its independent status and became part of the United Oxford Hospitals, the Hospital Management Committee for Oxford. This continued until 1974, when responsibility passed to Oxfordshire Area Health Authority (Teaching) and then, in 1982, to Oxfordshire Health Authority. The Radcliffe Infirmary became an independent NHS Trust in 1993, and part of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust in 1999.