TWO plans to build new student accommodation in central Oxford have been given the go ahead.
Brasenose College has been given permission to refurbish and extend buildings within Frewin Quad off New Inn Hall Street, while St Peter’s College has been given permission to build a new block of student flats on the site of Castle Hill House opposite County Hall and the castle.
Both developments were approved by Oxford City Council’s West Area Planning Committee when it met on Tuesday afternoon (December 8).
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Both Brasenose and St Peter’s argued that the new flats would take students out of private rental homes in the city, freeing them up for other people.
Frewin Quad plans
At Frewin Quad, a total of 30 new student bedrooms can now be built, in a three-storey block where there is currently a small courtyard area.
The plans for the quad also include refurbishing existing accommodation at Frewin Hall, a grade-II* listed building.
The ground floor of the hall will become a communal area, and the building’s Norman vaulted basement below ground will be used as study space.
Philip Parker, the bursar of Brasenose College, said the site was an ‘under-recognised gem’ and would be enhanced by the plans.
A design drawing of Brasenose College’s plans for Frewin Quad. Picture: Oxford City Council
He added: “At the moment we have to put some of our undergraduates in a site that is further out which is really meant for postgraduates, which is not ideal.”
The plans, he said, would help to provide more postgraduates with college-owned accommodation separate from undergraduates.
Committee member John Tanner said: “This seems to be an excellent and sympathetic plan not only for the development of the college but the development of the city as well.”
Castle Hill House plans
St Peter’s plans for Castle Hill House will mean the historic building is demolished, alongside a former Conservative club.
In their place, a new block of 54 student flats will be built, four-storeys tall at its highest, which has been designed to meet high environmental standards.
There are also plans for communal garden areas, and a new go-between gateway on Bullwarks Lane behind the site, which will join it to St Peter’s main college buildings.
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Judith Buchanan, master of the college, said the new flats would help to attract students from less wealthy backgrounds to the college.
Professor Buchanan said: “The college not being in a position to offer three years of accommodation reduces our appeal to bright candidates from low-income backgrounds and for the city of course this means our students are taking up valuable rental properties that could be used by other communities.”
A design drawing of the new St Peter’s College student accommodation planned for the Castle Hill House site. Picture: Oxford City Council
But Debbie Dance of the Oxford Civic Society raised concerns about how the new tall building would obscure a view of the castle mound from Bullwarks Lane.
The area around Castle Hill House is part of the medieval core of Oxford, and the Civic Society has previously raised concerns about the historic architecture being lost.
Ms Dance described a window placed in the wall of the site looking onto Bullwarks Lane to provide a view of the mound as an ‘arrow slit’.
She asked the committee: “When so little town heritage survives is it right that in order to accommodate more student housing they seek to creep not just outwards but upwards, and because the buildings are very tall, that they should be allowed to over develop this site?”
But councillors on the committee were convinced the new building was a good idea and approved it.
Committee member Alex Hollingsworth welcomed plans to 'open up' Bullwarks Lane, describing them as a far cry from plans St Peter's had in the 1990s to close off the lane to the public.
Both sites also required listed building consent for construction work to take place.
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