Oxford Terrace
alongside All Saints' Church, Basingstoke
Some Notes on a "Lost Road"
by Allan Palmer
Have you ever wondered about that short stretch of road to the east of All Saints Church that runs from Southern Road to the railings at the back of the car park?
What was the street called? Where didi it go to? How many people lived there?
When I was researching content for this website) I found on Ordnance Survey maps for 1894, 1910 and later, that the street was the end of a cul-de-sac labelled Oxford Terrace running from Southern Road northwards to a point approximately at the entrance to the present New Road car park. On the 1894 map there are just 9 properties on the east side, and these are detailed in both the 1891 and 1901 Census lists. (As this street is not recorded until the 1891Census, it appears that the houses were built in the 1880s.)
But by 1910, the maps show that houses have now been built on the west side (just north of the original All Saints Church). While the 1910 map labels this street as Oxford Terrace, things are different in the following year's Census (1911). This Census records that on Oxford Terrace there are 9 properties even-numbered from 2 to 18. The 11 newer properties (odd-numbered from 1 to 21) are listed in the Census as Victoria Park Terrace. This division of the 2 sides of the street is repeated in the 1921 Census.
However, in the 1939 Register (the closest equivalent to a Census between 1921 and 1951) the residents of Oxford Terrace and Victoria Park Terrace are all listed under Victoria Park Road. Confusingly OS maps continue to label the street as Oxford Terrace. I have a Barnett Street Plan of Basingstoke from 1972/3 (when I first came to the town) which uses Victoria Park Road for the street name. This street plan was soon out of date due to the redevelopment of the area providing the current car parks on the south side of New Road.
Extract from 1894 OS map showing the original 9 properties in Oxford Terrace
Extract from 1910 OS map showing the properties on both sides of Oxford Terrace
Extract from 1972 street plan showing street name as Victoria Park Road
Looking south down "Victoria Park Road" c.1963, towards Southern Road and Fairfields School. All Saints' Church stands behind the houses.
The black & white photo appears to date from around 1963.
So that remaining stretch of road has been known by 3 names. I wonder why the Victoria Park name was chosen- where was “Victoria Park”?
See these pages for more information:
📍 Neighbours of the "Iron Church"