The barracks were built in a Fortress Gothic Revival style at Bullingdon Green using Charlbury stone[1] and completed in spring 1876.

No suitable site could be found there so instead it was built on Rose Hill at the junction with Church Cowley Road.

[8] The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry left the barracks in 1959 and, although the men's quarters were retained, the keep was subsequently demolished.

[2] The museum collection moved from Cowley Barracks to the Slade Park Territorial Army base at that time.

[10] On 15 August 2019 a plinth was unveiled at the Parade Green student accommodation in James Wolfe Road in memory of the barracks.