HAVE you ever wondered who actually sprayed the graffiti over the shops on Cowley Road?

Or what the longest-running shop in the street is?

Maybe you just love reminiscing about when the Zodiac was still the Zodiac?

If so, this is for you: a new website aiming to reveal the story behind every single building in 'Oxford's favourite street'.

But there's a twist.

Instead of regurgitating history books, council records and – dare we say it – newspaper articles, artist Eleanor Greenhalgh is asking the people who know Cowley Road best – the people who live there – to fill in the online archive themselves with their memories, anecdotes, pictures and videos.

The aim is to get real stories of the living street: of quirky shop keepers, belligerent barmen and ambitious cinema owners who dared to dream.

And, because all the words, pictures and videos are supplied by ordinary people, the whole archive will be free for anyone to use and reproduce.

Miss Greenhalgh, who has lived in the street for 10 years, explained: "Cowley Road has a unique history as a working class area but it's often left out of the mainstream narrative of Oxford: you buy your glossy photo guide of Oxford but rarely see anything beyond Magdalen Bridge.

"Our target audience for this project is anyone who lives on and loves the Cowley Road, whether that is older people with great memories or younger people who want to learn those stories."

The 29-year-old has already created what she calls the 'skeleton' of the website.

On the homepage, visitors are greeted with two rows of pictures: north side (odd numbers) and south side (even).

Each picture is a building, from The City Arms pub on the corner of Magdalen Road down to the Plain roundabout.

Users can click on any picture to go to a page about that building.

For example, number 250 (south side) is currently an empty unit, but click on the picture and you are transported back in time to when it was one of Oxford's best-loved greasy spoon cafes, The Excelsior.

Alongside photos of 'legendary' proprietor Kostas Hajiyiani there is a link to the Oxford Mail article about its closure in 2014 and an excerpt from a memorable review by Robin Mackay which begins: "No sooner has one entered this place than one is entirely overcome by an almost toxic metaphysical gloom, way beyond what might be causally explained by the miasma of budget cigarette smoke streaming constantly from the antediluvian countenances of the regulars... "

Behind door number 288, one learns that the building which now houses the City Arms pub was built in the late 1930s in the 'Jacobean revival style'.

But many, many more of the entries for the road's 288 buildings are still empty, waiting to be filled by the readers.

Miss Greenhalgh, who works full-time in mental health, said: "The idea is to celebrate the Cowley Road and create an archive that is accessible to local people.

"There are some brilliant local archives but the trouble is they are held under copyright so if you're an artist or historian it can be difficult to get hold of them."

The website, cowleyroad.org, is a 'wiki', in the same format and style as online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and aims to be a 'Wikipedia of the Cowley Road'.

In order to become an editor, visitors simply have to create a wiki account, which takes a few minutes, then start feeding in their memories.

Miss Greenhalgh, who grew up in Grove, has created her website with help from programmer Charlie Harvey and Oxford historian Liz Woolley – best known to many as the creator of the popular 66 Men of Grandpont project.

Ms Woolley commented: "I think it is a fantastic way for the local community to get involved in finding out about the history of Cowley Road but also contributing to an exciting resource which will grow and develop and be available to everybody."

The group will officially launch their site tomorrow with an event at East Oxford Community Centre from 3pm to 5pm, where Ms Woolley will also give a short talk about the history of East Oxford.

They are also planning to hold a workshop at the community centre on August 13, and have invited anyone with memories, photos or memorabilia from the history of Cowley Road to come along and share it for the website.

The team will also be offering crash-courses in how to become a contributor to cowleyroad.org