Oxford Houseboat

Oxford College barge: Houseboat conversion

This Edwardian example (built circa 1908) is the former Queen's College barge. Originally used as a changing room / washroom for the college oarsmen, rowing crews and staff, it was converted for use as a houseboat in the 1950s before being redesigned as a contemporary residence enjoying the adjacent water meadows of a reach of the river Thames in north Oxford. The black and white images show the first stages of the restoration project: the placing of a new custom-built steel hull with its rising curved prow a the bow end copied identically from the original to receive the scultured eagle figurehead. The red base colour or « assiette » would have been originally gilded.