The first council houses in the current city of Oxford were those shown above. They were built in 1919/20 by Headington Rural District Council under the Addison Act, and only came under the city council nine years later when Headington became part of the city of Oxford in 1928/9. These 24 large semi-detached houses, designed by the architect James Wells of Market Street, were built by Messrs Benfield & Loxley of Bullingdon Road on land formerly owned by Magdalen College..

The houses lie between the blacksmith's immediately to the east of Bury Knowle Park (now the Bury Knowle Heath Centre) and Barton Road, and John Betjeman praised them as a “neat council house scheme”. (It was, however, very small compared with what was to come after 1946, when 1,600 council houses were built in Barton.)

The Oxford Times on 23 July 1920 (p. 13) reported under the heading “Headington Housing Scheme: A rush for tenancies” that 24 houses were complete, and that 60 applications for them had already been made to Headington Rural District Council. It stated that “the houses erected on the main road present a smart appearance, with their whitewashed fronts and red tiled roofs”.

The 1921 census shows the first tenants to occupy the 22 council houses at 209–251 London Road (from Bury Knowle Park to Barton Road, which were formerly numbered 63–105). They were large houses with six rooms, and eight of these houses were shared by two households.

• 209 London Road (was 63)
  John Rand, a retired gardener, and his wife Mary;
  Gilbert Archie Rand (32), a general labourer in the Army Ordnance Department at Didcot, and his wife Margaret.
• 211 London Road (was 65)
  Tom Luckett (29), a baker for the Co-op in High Wycombe, and his wife Alma and their two children;
  William S. H. Jacobs (29) a cellarman with Gammon & Wicks at Frewin Court in Oxford, and his wife Kathleen
• 213 London Road (was 67)
  George Henry Edgington (45), a carpenter for the ironmongers G. R. Cooper in St Ebbe's Street, and his wife Ellen and their three young children, plus a boarder.
• 215 London Road (was 69)
  Alfred Jacob (30), a general labourer in the Army Ordnance Department at Didcot, and his wife Eliza and their young daughter; and
  William Smith (29), a boot repairer (whose shop was at 101 London Road), with his wife Helen (25) and their two young children.
• 217 London Road (was 71)
  Arthur Coppock (26), a temporary civil service clerk in the tax office at 16 St Giles' Street, land his wife Gladys;
  Percival George Butler (27), a front axle assembler at Morris Motors Ltd in Cowley, with his wife Hettie (29)
• 219 London Road (was 73)
  Frank Miles (30), a grocer's assistant with Twining Brothers at 83/84 High Street, Oxford, and his wife Ada;
• 221 London Road (was 75)
  (Steven) George Flexon (23), a foundry labourer at the Morris Motors Ltd in Cowley, and his wife Daisy and their daughter
  William James Flexon (30). a general labourer at Morris Motors Ltd in Cowley, and his wife Beatrice
• 223 London Road (was 77)
  Walter Ernest Morris (51), an out-of-work builder's labourer, and his wife Martha, and his stepdaughter Winifred Cooper, who was a waitress at the Cadena in Cornmarket, and his own five children: Walter (20) was a boot & shoe repairer with G. H. Nutt at 12 London Road (Mount Pleasant); Phillip (16) was an errand boy for the Little Zoo animal dealer in Oxford's Covered Market; and Donald (14) was an errand boy with G. H. Nutt
• 225 London Road (was 79)
  William Joseph Best (50), a hospital porter at the Orthopaedic Hospital in Windmill Road, and his wife Edith and their two children, plus a boarder
• 227 London Road (was 81)
  Walter Nicholls (33), a brush hand [painter] at the Warneford Asylum, and his wife Amy and their daughter Amy junior
  Stanley Arthur Wilton (27), an engineer's universal miller at Morris Motors Ltd in Cowley, and his wife Amy
• 229 London Road (was 83)
  Thomas Arnold Taylor (25), a decorator working for Exeter College in Oxford, and his wife Lilian
• 231 London Road (was 85)
  William John Wetherall (28), a clerk in RAF No. 3 Stores Depot at Milton, near Steventon, and his wife Agnes
• 233 London Road (was 87)
  Ernest Henry Luker (54), a builder's labourer with Knowles & Son builders of 36 Holywell Street in Oxford, and his wife Elizabeth and his three sons, plus his brother-in-law William Slingo (53), who was blind and had no employment. His son Frederick (15) was a gardener's assistant for Lady Markby at The Pullens in Pullen's Lane
• 235 London Road (was 89)
  Ernest George Dennis (31, a bootmaker with the Co-op in George Street, Oxford, and his wife Ena and their two young daughters
  Nellie Lavinia Townsend (a widow of 33) and her son Philip (9)
• 237 London Road (was 91)
  Harry Peedell (53) a roadman with Headington Rural District Council, and his wife Rhoda, a charwoman
• 239 London Road (was 93): No listing
• 241 London Road (was 95)
  Hubert James Norgrove (25), a tailor with Walters & Co in Turl Street, Oxford, and his wife Winifred and their young daughter
• 243 London Road (was 97)
  Alice Ayres, a widow of 41, and her three children: Elizabeth 18) was a dressmaker and William (16) was a gardener with the Headington nurseryman Ryman
  Emma Hedges, a widow of 69 who was the char of Mrs Pratt in St Andrew's Lane
• 245 London Road (was 99)
  Archie Thomas Coppock (25), a bonnet fitter at Morris Motors Ltd in Cowley, and his wife Nellie
• 247 London Road (was 101)
  Stephen Harry Bushnell (28), an engine fitter with the Royal Engineers at Didcot, and his wife Lenna and their four children, plus a boarder with two children
• 249 London Road (was 103)
  Frederick John Cooke (27), a college servant at Oriel College, and his wife Lilla and their young son
• 251 London Road (was 105)
  Ernest Albert Gardner (34), a builder's labourer with Billings & Co Ltd, and his wife Mary

The other two houses of the first wave built in 1920 were at 1 & 3 Barton Road.

In about 1925 more houses, designed by W. Page-Webb, were added in Barton Road, now by Headington Urban District Council. When Headington was taken into the city of Oxford in 1929, these houses on the London Road and Barton Road came under Oxford City Borough Council.

These houses have always been in the parish of St Andrew’s Church and although the ones in Barton Road were in fact the first phase of the Barton council estate, they are not today generally considered to be part of Barton.

The Oxford Journal Illustrated published two photographs of the new Barton Road estate on 7 March 1928 showing the deep mud that ambulance drivers had to negotiate to reach it.

Kelly's Directory for 1930 (right) lists 17 families living in the council houses on the west side of Barton Road, and then William T. Mattock's nursery on the corner of Barton Lane. (The house in the heading numbered 105 London Road is the present 251 London Road)

After crossing Barton Lane the listing for Barton Road continued on down through the village of Barton (now Barton Village Road), as there was no northern bypass cutting it off until 1935.

On the west side of Barton Road there were four houses with names (Daymer, Beverley, Misbourne, and Redriff) followed by the recreation ground and the large older house called Barton End.

The detail below from the 1939 map of Headington shows the council houses on the London and Barton Road and also some of the newer private development behind (in Chestnut Avenue, Ash Grove, and Hawthorn Avenue).

Recent alteration to the London Road council houses

As can be seen on the map immediately above, the pair of houses on the south-west corner of Barton Road (249 & 251 London Road) stood in very large gardens, and were demolished in 2008 to make way for a larger development.

This image from Google StreetView that year shows them hidden by trees just prior to demolition. following approval of planning application .07/01906/FUL to replace them with a four-bedroomed house and seven flats in two blocks. A further application to build two semi-detached dwellings to the north of the site was also approved (07/02909/FUL).