Description

OXFORD SP 52 OS MARSTON STREET 19/10003 St Stephens House & attached cloisters GV II Theological college, formerly the Mission House of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, attached to the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Iffley Road (qv). Late C19 entrance block, probably by local architect Clapton Crabb Rolfe; attached main block with cloister, 1899 by G.F. Bodley, built under the supervision of Brother Maynard SSJE; 1929 1st floor added to Marston Street Bodley entrance by F.E. Howard and T. Rayson; 1937-9 transeptal east end added to House Chapel by J.N. Comper. Late C19 entrance block of red brick with slated pitched roofs and dormers. Short tower belfrey having pyramidal roof with lucarnes. 2, 3 & 4 storeys with semi-basement. Altered 2 & 3-light metal framed windows. To rear, 4th storey "Founder's Chapel" with paired 2- light pointed arch clerestory windows, eastern rose window and western gable end carved stone Calvery set in a shallow pointed arch niche (heads of Mary and St. John currently missing). Interior of chapel with arch-braced roof and simple stained timber arcading. Similarly stained simple pews. Mural on western wall depicting the stoning of St. Stephen. Bodley block rendered with stone dressings. Tiled hipped and pitched roofs with dormers. To Marston Street, a recessed 2 storey entrance block with central pointed arch doorway flanked by buttresses and 3-light windows. 2 2-light windows at 1st floor level. This leads to an E-plan accommodation/office block, mostly 2 storeys and attics, with cloisters to south-west adjoining the listed Church of St. John the Evangelist, Iffley Road (q.v.), also by Bodley. On the same axis as the church, to the north east, the House Chapel. Windows to E-plan block stone architraved with transoms and mullions to ground floor and 2-light to 1st, all with small leaded panes. Single storey north eastern entrance with central pointed arch doorway flanked by 5-light windows; single bay central hipped roof extension above. Interior with simple but good detail. House Chapel, 4 buttressed bays with 2 bay buttressed transeptal east end. Nave with 2-light pointed arch tracery windows, east end with lancets. Interior with wooden screen at west end and stalls; painted frieze above nave windows. Pointed chancel arch head has extrados moulding fading into walls and intrados moulding on corbel springers as part of chancel vaulting; simplified corresponding blind arch on east wall visually frames classical ciborium by Comper. Axial cloister extension leads to stone flagged rectangular cloister which closes off the E plan, forming 2 small courtyards, and abuts the church through which it is entered. Cloister lit by slightly pointed arch 3-light openings, set in recessed arched openings to interior, some with window seats.

Listing NGR: SP5261905625

External Links

• St Stephen's House at Wikipedia
• St Stephen's House official website
• Wikidata IDs Q26523545 Q5273413

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)