The present White Horse at 1 London Road dates from about 1932, but the original pub was built before 1841. The pub stands just to the east of the Boundary Brook, which until 1929 separated Oxford and Headington. The above picture below shows the old pub in about 1916, with the landlord Joseph Skey and his wife and son outside.

The picture below shows the present pub in about 2000.

The former pub on this site

At the time of the 1841 census Henry Stanley, described as a victualler, lived at the White Horse with his wife Sarah. Henry was still listed as a beer retailer in the Post Office Directory of 1847, but he died at the age of 69 in May 1850 and was buried in St Andrew's churchyard.

The Headington Rent Book dating from later in 1850 listed Elizabeth Stanley as the tenant of the White Horse (the first time the name of the pub appears in print). Mrs Stanley was cautioned on 11 November 1854 for “keeping her house open for the sale of beer at an unlawful hour, on Sunday the 29th ult.”, and fined 11s 6d (including costs) on 19 June 1858 “for keeping her house open after ten o'clock at night for the sale of beer”..

The Headington Rent Book of 1850 shows that the owner of the White Horse was then owned by Henry Purdue, and its gross estimated rental was £12 and its rateable value £8 10s. He continued to rent it out to Mrs Stanley, and the 1851 census shows her at the age of 56 living at the pub with her widowed sister Mary Pimm and a 15-year-old servant boy.

By the time of the 1861 census the landlord was Daniel White, who was described as a victualler at the White Horse. Aged 31, he lived there with his wife Jane, his one-year-old daughter, two servants, and a lodger. At the time of the 1871 census he had two more daughters. He died at the inn on 5 February 1878.

The 1881 census shows Mrs Elizabeth Harris (a widow aged 33) running the White Horse. She ran it on her own for 18 years, which implies that the business was fairly quiet: this is corroborated by the fact that the occupation of the next landlord, John William Thomas, was given in the 1901 census as “printer (compositor)”: presumably his wife Clara Thomas née Kempster, whom he had married in 1875, helped to look after the pub.

By 1911 the pub was run by William & Clara Wheeler.

Between 1915 and 1917 the landlord was Joseph Robert Skey (son of John Skey, who had been the central Headington toll-house keeper in 1851). Joseph had been running a shop in New High Street, and after his short period as landlord here went back to being a shopkeeper in Windmill Road.

Horace Thomas was landlord from 1919, and the 1921 census shows him living here at the age of 39 with his wife Emily (29), who assisted him, and their five young children. He was still the landlord when the old pub was demolished and the new one built in about 1930. Joseph Gartside describes it at that time:

London Road starts by the White Horse. Owned by Morrells, it had a lovely lawn where the car-park is now, and at the back of the lawn was an open pavilion where we could sit and have a drink and watch the children play on the lawn. Behind the pavilion was a lovely garden.

At this time the Boundary Brook ran openly past the west side of the pub and then under the London Road, but it was culverted here, probably in 1957 when Headley Way was extended from Woodlands Road to reach the Headington Road/London Road junction.

The present pub on this site from 1932

In about 1932 Morrells Brewery built a new pub on the same site. The Architect's Journal for 13 July 1952 under the heading “Three Inns in Oxfordshire designed by Gilbert T. Gardner” has a photograph of this pub, (less the section on the left, which was added later) and the text reads:

This [and the Royal Standard on the corner of New High Street and the Fox in Barton Village Road] have been erected during the past twelvemonth to replace existing public-houses that had been condemned as no longer suitable.

THE WHITE HORSE, HEADINGTON
The saloon, the largest room on the ground floor, stands alone in the front of the house. All rooms have dadoes of brown linoleum, which has been fastened with a special mastic direct on to a cement backing, salient angles carrying rubber angle strips

The plans that follow this description show on the ground floor a saloon in the front bay with toilets on the right and behind that the bar parlour, servery, and bar, and on the left a hall with a living room, scullery, coal storage area, and a toilet. Upstairs there is a club room in the front bay, with a bathroom and toilets to the left and a box room to the right, and four bedrooms behind. The plans are followed by this text:

Once again, the servery occupies a key position, and the part played by the various doors in giving it a measure of isolation, combined with easy access, will not escape attention. Over the saloon is the rather larger club-room, its three windows occurring in the gable. Room has been found for three bedrooms of good size, and one small one, bathroom, etc.