Birthplace of Richard I and John

A modest commemorative stone set into a wall on Beaumont Street marks the site of Beaumont Palace, a royal residence built around 1130 by King Henry I just outside Oxford's west gate. Within its Romanesque King's House wing, Richard the Lionheart was born in 1157, followed by his brother John — later King John of England — in 1167, making this one of the more consequential birthplaces in medieval English history. The palace itself gradually fell into disuse and has left almost no physical trace above ground. Today the inscribed stone is easy to walk past without noticing, tucked near the junction of Walton Street — a small but resonant remnant of Plantagenet royal Oxford.