Stanton House is a small friendly Christian retreat centre near Oxford providing warm hospitality for the pilgrim. We provide a haven and place of rest for prayer, refreshment and renewal - an oasis of calm where people can meet with God.

The story of Stanton House is one of God’s grace and provision: built by John Thompson, an Oxford city banker, for his three sisters, it has survived over a century of prosperity, dereliction and, now, a re-emergence into a spiritual home. As a Christian retreat house, it welcomes all who have heard the call of Jesus: “Come with me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while” (Mark 6 v 31).

Since 1879 Stanton House has stood on the edge of the small Oxfordshire village of Stanton St John - north east of Oxford, the “City of Dreaming Spires” (a phrase coined by the poet, Matthew Arnold). The grandeur and distinction of Oxford, with its 38 colleges belonging to the University of Oxford, is world famous, as visitors come from all over the globe to explore one of the most visited destinations in the UK.

Nestled in the gentle countryside, 5 miles from the city centre, lies our village - a quiet, beautiful place surrounded by farmland and woods. Records for the village date back to the ancient Domesday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086. The Saxon name ‘Stanton’ means ‘homestead on stony ground’, and John St John was the first Lord of the Manor.