Life in and around Headington & OX3 (mostly), and Oxford (occasionally)
"To every complex problem there is a simple solution, startling in its simplicity, piercing in its clarity, and hopelessly and completely wrong" - Gore Vidal.
You may have noticed the security fencing on the pavement at the top of Headington Hill. Behind it there used to be an old stone wall, part of the wall round the Headington Hill Hall estate, now Brookes’ campus. All there is at the moment is the remains of a pile of rubble.
I’m told that the Brookes estates people were worried that this section of the wall was bulging badly, so they brought in specialist contracctors to rebuild it. Perhaps not surprisingly, once the contractors started to dismantle the wall they found that a whole stretch was likely to fall at any time. In the end they carried out a ‘controlled collapse’ of about a 15 metre length, leaving the gap you can see behind the fencing.
The wall will be rebuilt using as much of the original stone as possible.
Slightly off Headington’s main drag a few doors down Windmill Road is independent café and gelatería Adria, which opened in February this year. I went for the first time today, and now I’m sorry I hadn’t been before. It was mid-morning so I was looking for coffee and a pastry. Sadly, pastries weren’t on offer (the owner explained he had tried them but they didn’t sell well) and loyal readers will know I’m not a fan of cake in the morning (there was carrot cake), so it had to be ice cream. As you’d expect in a gelatería, there was ice cream. About 16 varieties including two or three sorbets, in a range of subdued (vanilla, choclolate) and garish (bubblegum) colours. I opted for coffee and a scoop of stracciatella; my companion chose coffee and lemon sorbet, all of which were excellent.
There’s a nice atmosphere too – tables and comfortable chairs inside, including some neat child-size armchairs, and more tables and chairs on the pavement outside. The décor is calm and stylish, a background rather than a feature.
As well as coffee and ice cream Adria offers soft drinks, a wide choice of herbal teas and a food menu of pizzas and toasted sandwiches. Well, I didn’t ask, but I assume ‘baked’ means ‘toasted’.
Adria isn’t on twitter and the owner said he’s still working on setting up a facebook page. I hope he doesn’t leave it too long because a small independent needs people to know about it, and I suspect Adria isn’t as well-known as it deserves to be. I’ll certainly go back, and when I do I’ll suggest that if they can’t offer pastries then a jar or two of upmarket cookies might fill the gap.
There might be a new primary school coming to Headington. The sponsors are on twitter as @HeadingtonCS and their website says they want to open “a new state-funded primary school with an inclusive Christian ethos”.
The group behind it is Chapel Street Community Schools Trust @ChapelSt, a registered charity chaired by Labour peer Baroness Maeve Sherlock @MaeveSherlock. You can tell them what you think of their proposal by answering their questionnaire, although apart from the first question about the “Christian ethos” all the other questions are asking you to vote for Mom’s apple pie and world peace so the results will be predictable and frankly worthless.
Chapel Street questionnaire
We might query how committed they are to Headington when we see from twitter that they are also interested in opening a school in North Abingdon and a secondary school in Radcliffe (between Manchester and Bolton). All three have virtually identical online brochures.
The company currently runs 7 schools including the Tyndale Community School in Cowley which opened in 2013 – controversially, as the City Council said the premises were unsuitable. The group also came in for criticism in South London in 2014 when it opened a free school with just 12 pupils. The Wimbledon Guardian quoted a local councillor describing the school building – the former home of the Salvation Army in Morden – as “a corrugated iron hut“.
While Baroness Sherlock has impeccable Labour credentials and a track record of involvement in worthy causes (see her entry in Wikipedia), Chapel Street has been criticised by the British Humanist Association for its roots in the Salvation Army which has what might be described at best as an ambivalent attitude to homosexuality and gender issues. Although its public statements are inclusive it is widely reported* that the Army does not recognise single-sex relationships and requires all its unmarried officers to be celibate – which of course means any couple in a same-sex partnership of whatever status in law.
[The] schools are not Community schools – a legal term referring to a form of maintained school which does not have a religious character – but are in fact ‘faith’ schools, legally designated as Christian. The BHA complained to the Government about the misleading nature of the schools’ names, but the Government replied saying ‘Free Schools have the freedom to choose the name of their school. We do not dictate to schools what they can or cannot choose.’
If Chapel Street can find somewhere to open their new school (bets on a postcard please – or in the Comments box), the way the law stands there’s every chance they will be able to go ahead.
