List entry for Hill Top House: 1047310
List entry for Hill Top House's gate piers: 1319993

This house dates from the early nineteenth century. It is specifically named as “Hill Top” in directories from 1867, and also on the 1876 and 1898 OS maps of Headington.

See the more detailed page about this house (with the occupants of this house from 1830 to the 1960s) in the section on Headington Hill.

In 1889 the municipal borough of Oxford was extended eastwards, bringing Headington Road and Hill Top House into the city of Oxford. In 1894 this area was taken away from the parish of St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington and annexed to the parish of St Clement’s.

In the late 1960s, Hill Top’s extensive grounds were much reduced when six houses facing the London Road were built in its garden, and by the early 1980s the house itself was in multiple occupation.

In January 2001 Oxford city council granted planning permission (00/00925/NFH) for a detached terraced block of five two-storey, one-bed mews houses in its back garden, on 27 June 2002 Martin Young, chairman of Headington Hill Residents’ Association, sought to challenge this plan (see Young v. Oxford City Council, Permission to appeal and Judgement).

A second application to build the five houses (02/01475/FUL) was eventually approved by the full city council on 17 February 2003 after being called in. The voting was close (16 for and 16 against), with the Lord Mayor’s casting vote deciding the matter.

The main house was duly refurbished and converted into six flats and five more houses built in its garden.