mage contributed by Jane Kilpatrick of the now-demolished Uhuru wholefoods co-op in 1972
Edwardian ghost sign recently uncovered during renovation of a former post office
Former restaurant, one of hundreds of photos contributed by Martin Stott from his personal archive
CowleyRoad.org is a DIY community project creating an open visual archive of the street's history. Hundreds of people visited and contributed to our interactive street view installation, which luanched the project at Cowley Carnival. The memory wall collected local people's stories and invited contributions to the online archive.
people attended the project launch event, including website training session and illustrated lecture on Cowley Road architectural history by historian Liz Woolley.
Our second public workshop welcomed Cowley residents who brought previously unseen material and memories. Free website training was provided.
Left: a former nurse edits the entry for Manzil Way, site of the old hospital and nurses station.
CowleyRoad.org would be impossible without the work of generous volunteers, who are building up the open access archive for future generations. Historian Ed Pope (above) has painstakingly catalogued former businesses operating at every Cowley Road address. He has also made his archive of the Backstreet Bugle, a 1970s radical newspaper, available for digitization. Several extracts can already be found on the page for 35 Cowley Road (examples above). Local resident Katie (right) has been collecting photographs and oral histories from older people and uploading these to the website. Photographer Martin Stott has donated hundreds of photographs from his personal archive (examples above and below).
It's now easier than ever to get involved in CowleyRoad.org. We have a rich collection of photos waiting to be added to the site by volunteers with five minutes to spare. Go to CowleyRoad.org/wiki to request your account and get started. You can easily click 'edit' on any page to add your memories, or if you're not sure where to start, check out the list of jobs which need doing.
CowleyRoad.org has been made possible with the help of financial support from the Greening Lamborn Trust, which exists to promote interest in the history & architectural heritage of Oxford by supporting publications and other media which create access to them.