The Cowley Road Open Archive is the brainchild of artist Eleanor Greenhalgh and programmer Charlie Harvey with additional guidance provided by local historian Liz Woolley. On Sunday you’ll be able to hear a lecture from Woolley about the history of OX4, contribute your own memories and photos of Cowley Road and find out how to add your own recollections to the online collection. Your memories will contribute to the digital open archive and will add further to the photographs and description of every public/commercial property from the Plain to Magdalen Road. The creators have described it as “like a Wikipedia for the Cowley Road” and aims to celebrate Cowley Road’s social and architectural history. The content is free for all to use and has some intriguing insights into the history of OX4. For example, the whole of Manzil way was home to an imposing workhouse – all that remains is the chapel behind the mosque which now serves as the Asian Cultural Centre. Also, Bartlemas chapel which is now on private ground but the buildings on this site used to stand alone for a long time and served as a leper hospital in medieval times long before the Cowley Road was paved.
East Oxford Community Centre, 44 Princes Street OX4 1DD
