Student Accommodation in Headington

Student housing in Headington

Headington sits on the hill above Oxford, and it's built around student life in a way few Oxford neighbourhoods are. Oxford Brookes University's main campus is here. So are three of the city's biggest hospitals. If you're weighing up student housing in Headington, you're looking at a spot where lectures, labs, wards and your front door can all sit within a few minutes of each other, with the rest of Oxford a short bus ride down the hill.

It's a working area first, a student one second, which suits people who'd rather live somewhere with a proper high street than a strip built entirely for undergraduates. London Road runs through the middle of it, families and hospital staff live alongside students, and the pace stays calmer than the city centre without cutting you off from it. Most student accommodation in Headington sits in the streets either side of London Road and around Old Road, close enough to walk to campus or a hospital shift.

What's around Headington

London Road is the local high street: a run of independent shops, pharmacies, a launderette, and cafés including a Caffè Nero, all within walking distance of most student houses in the area. For green space, Bury Knowle Park has around seven hectares of parkland, tennis courts, and picnic tables, and it doubles as a shortcut between the London Road shops and the streets further up the hill. Headington Hill Park and South Park both give you a proper view back over the city, and on a clear evening it's worth the walk up just for that.

For something odder, head to New High Street to see the Headington Shark, a fibreglass shark embedded nose-first in the roof of a terraced house since 1986. Beyond the streets, Shotover Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest with woodland and heath walks a short ride from most Headington addresses, popular with runners avoiding the city traffic.

Getting around

The Stagecoach 8 is the route most Headington residents use, running between Oxford city centre, Headington, and Barton roughly every 7 to 10 minutes through the day, with a night service that keeps going into the early hours. Check current times on the Oxford Bus Company's route page before you commit to a house, since departure points vary slightly by street. Walking into the city centre from most of Headington takes around 25 to 30 minutes down Headington Hill, and it's a popular cycle route too, mostly downhill on the way in.

A lot of Headington postcodes don't need transport at all. If your course or placement is based on the Brookes or hospital campuses, you can be there on foot in five to ten minutes.

Universities near Headington

Oxford Brookes University's main campus sits inside Headington itself. The Gipsy Lane site, home to the John Henry Brookes Building, sits a few minutes' walk from the Headington Hill site along Headington Road, and the Marston Road site (Faculty of Health and Life Sciences) is about 20 minutes on foot from Gipsy Lane. Full details on facilities and access sit on the Oxford Brookes University page.

Headington also works for University of Oxford students on clinical or health placements. The John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital, and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre are all based here, and each hosts University of Oxford medical science departments alongside NHS wards, so it's a genuinely practical base for medical, nursing, and allied health students even if your college is in the centre. For everything else, the University of Oxford page covers colleges and central departments.

Prefer to be closer to the city's main student strip? The Oxford City Centre area page covers the centre in more depth.

Accommodation in Headington

Most student housing in Headington is shared houses: converted Victorian and Edwardian terraces split into rooms, popular with Brookes groups who want their own kitchen and living space rather than halls. There's also a decent run of studios and en-suite rooms aimed at postgrads and medical students who'd rather live alone but stay close to the hospitals. On Housr, filter by weekly price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and whether you want a single room or a studio, so you can narrow it down before you start viewing.