[6] The building was designed by the Gothic Revival architect George Edmund Street and built in 1860–62.

Samuel Wilberforce, then Bishop of Oxford, consecrated it as the parish church of Saints Philip and James on 8 May 1862.

[8] Immediately to the south is Church Walk, a pedestrian-only link between Woodstock Road and North Parade.

On the south side of Church Walk is the former vicarage, 68 Woodstock Road, designed by Street's former assistant, Harry Drinkwater, and built in 1887.

The vicarage is a Grade II listed building[9] and is now part of St Antony's College, Oxford.