Summertown is a one-mile square residential area, north of St Giles, the boulevard leading out of Oxford's city centre.

Summertown is home to several independent schools and the city's most expensive houses.

Much of the land belonged to St John's College, Oxford and the houses were originally sold leasehold.

[4] In 1875 St. John's was enlarged again with the addition of north and south aisles, an organ chamber and a second vestry,[4] presumably for a choir.

The congregation outgrew St. John the Baptist so a new church, Saint Michael and All Angels in Lonsdale Road, was built to replace it in 1908–09.

[5] St. Michael's is also a cruciform Early English Gothic Revival building, in this case designed by A.M.

[7] The present Gothic Revival church on Banbury Road was built in 1894 and its transepts and meeting room were added in 1910.

The Roman Catholic Parish church of Saints Gregory and Augustine on Woodstock Road,[9] was founded in 1911,[6][10] the same year as Saint Edmund and Frideswide (Iffley Road, now run by the Capuchin Franciscans).

The architect was Ernest Newton, and a much admired member of the Arts and Crafts movement.

In 1898 the City of Oxford Tramways Company extended its Banbury Road horse tram route to a new terminus at Summertown.

Banbury Road also has limited-stop Park and Ride bus services linking Water Eaton with central Oxford (route 500 run by the Oxford Bus Company) and with the John Radcliffe Hospital (route 700 run by Stagecoach).