HOTEL and restaurant owner Jeremy Mogford is planning a £1.5m makeover at the Old Parsonage Hotel in Oxford.

The news comes only weeks after the completion of a £500,000 investment in his nearby restaurant Gees, which underwent a major restoration.

Mr Mogford said the huge cash injection into the two businesses in Banbury Road was evidence of his confidence in the city’s economic future.

The “top to bottom makeover” will also mark 25 years since he acquired the Grade II listed Old Parsonage, located just to the north of St Giles.

He is proposing to create a residents’ roof garden and conservatory on the first floor, with the number of bedrooms increased from 30 to 35.

All the existing bedrooms and bathrooms are to be redesigned and refurbished, with bar improvements and a remodelled kitchen.

Mr Mogford said: “I converted the Old Parsonage from a fairly low key guest house, but the time has come for a major refurbishment that will be in keeping with the Old Parsonage that people know.

“I am disappointed with the two councils’ attitude to traffic, but I remain optimistic about Oxford as a buoyant city.

“Oxford has seen so much investment and great restoration projects, such as the Ashmolean Museum, the old Radcliffe Infirmary and the Bodleian Library.

“I have wanted to get on with both projects for about five years but did not want the two to coincide.”

Gees, housed in a Victorian conservatory, reopened in February after closing on Christmas Eve for building work which replaced timbers and restored the roof. The conservatory, dating from 1897, can claim to be one of the country’s oldest garden centres.

It was originally built to sell plants, fruit and vegetables produced nearby at the Gees nurseries in Norham Gardens.

With a planning application submitted to Oxford City Council, Mr Mogford hopes building work at the Old Parsonage will take place between the beginning of November and the end of February.

The hotel will have to close for four months.

Planning permission was granted last year to expand the Old Parsonage by building an extension at the rear of the building, creating an extra seven bedrooms.

But the plans have been revised, with two bedrooms combined into one.