St Barnabas, like many similar churches in the expanding towns and cities of Victorian England, was built to minister to the spiritual and practical needs of the poor and labouring classes. The parish was formed from that of St Paul, Oxford, in 1869; St Paul's was in turn formed from parts of the parishes of St Thomas and St Giles. The church was founded by
Thomas Combe (1796–1872), Superintendent of the
Oxford University Press close to the church, and his wife
Martha (1806–1893), now commemorated by a
blue plaque installed by the
Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. They were supporters of the
Oxford Movement (or
Tractarian movement). The first Parish Priest was Fr Montague Noel, SSC. The architect was Sir
Arthur Blomfield, a son of the
Bishop of London, who had previously designed the chapel for the
Radcliffe Infirmary. The architectural style is that of a
Romanesque basilica, possibly modelled on
San Clemente in Rome or the
Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello. St Barnabas has a distinctive square tower, in the form of an
Italianate campanile, that is visible from the surrounding area. The church was built on land donated by George Ward, a local land owner and member of the influential Ward family (named as the donor in the land conveyance, etc. in the Oxford Diocesan Archives). George's brother William Ward was Mayor of Oxford on two occasions, 1851/2 and 1861/2. It was consecrated in 1869 by
Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford and the campanile was completed in 1872. The pulpit was added in 1887 by
Heaton, Butler, and Bayne with the panels painted by Charles Floyce. This replaced a cylindrical timber pulpit with columns and a moulded cornice which is now at
St Peter's, London Docks. It has a ring of ten, distinctive, tubular bells, and the hours and quarters are sounded on them. An associated girls' and infant school for St. Barnabas's was built on a site in Cardigan Street in 1857. ==St Barnabas in literature==