A HISTORIC city centre pub is facing closure after an Oxford University college unveiled plans to convert the building for teaching and college social use.

The Turl Bar, in Turl Street, is owned by Lincoln College, which also owns the neighbouring Mitre restaurant.

The college is working with the Oxford architects ADP on the project. A planning application was submitted last week to the city council.

Tony Goulding, pubs officer for the Oxford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), said: “Architecturally, the Turl is a very nice Oxford pub, which I believe had been part of a sprawling coach house. It appears that the part of the building to go is the part for drinking only.

“This proposal is typical of what’s happening across the city. Not very long ago we lost the Market Tavern, just around the corner, next to the Covered Market.

“These pubs down side streets are an important part of Oxford to visitors as well as local people.

“But with the Turl it looks as though a deal has been done. The Turl Bar clearly did not fit in with Whitbread’s strategy.”

The pub was constructed in 1925 on the site of the stables and outbuildings which served the older coaching inn, the Mitre, in High Street.

The site, including both the Mitre and the Turl, has been owned by the college since 1467. All the upper floors of the buildings are used to accommodate students.

Both the Mitre and the Turl are run by the same tenant, Whitbread. But the lease for the Turl, now known as the Turl Bar, expired in 2005.

The college said that under the proposals, the site would return to its original historic configuration, with the Mitre remaining as the main public bar on site.

A college spokesman said: “The area currently occupied by the Turl will provide teaching and social spaces for the college, and also allow the construction of much-needed disabled access and a new fire escape to the student rooms above.

“This will allow this much-loved building to be extensively refurbished, allowing the Turl’s 20th century Arts & Crafts-style features to be sensitively restored.”

A Whitbread spokesman said: “We have made the decision not renew the lease for the Turl Bar when it expired and this was made in conjunction with the college.

“This particular site no longer fits our long-term strategy of running our own branded restaurants.”

Other Oxford pubs that have closed in recent years include: The Radcliffe Arms, Jericho, this year, the Somerset, Marston Road, in 2009, the Cock and Camel, George Street, and The Corner House, The Slade, both in 2008, and the Elm Tree, Cowley Road, 2007