Oxford University can demolish 25 Wellington Square on Little Clarendon Street. All 316 letters objected; Common Ground and The Nest lose their units.

Oxford University can knock down the 1970s block at 25 Wellington Square and replace it with a new academic building, after the city’s planning committee approved the scheme on Tuesday 6 October. Every one of the 316 letters sent to the council about the plans objected.

The block fronts Little Clarendon Street. Its ground floor houses Common Ground, Oxford Hub and The Nest. The council’s decision notice records approval subject to conditions and a section 106 legal agreement. The two-day call-in period has passed.

What will be built

The application, 25/03242/FUL, was made by Oxford University Development Ltd. It has two phases.

Phase 1 replaces number 25 with a part three, part four storey building and a basement. The officers’ report lists:

  • 4,050 square metres of academic space, with offices, meeting and tutorial rooms
  • lecture and teaching rooms in the basement
  • two ground floor units: a flexible commercial unit on the corner of Walton Street, and a café in the middle
  • study space for students at the end facing Wellington Square
  • a roof terrace and solar panels

Phase 2 turns the 19th century terrace at 32 to 42 Wellington Square, on the west side of the square, into 99 student rooms. That replaces the 99 rooms on the upper floors of number 25, which the report says have been empty for some time. The terrace is used for university offices and guest rooms now.

Why people objected

Of the 316 letters, 272 came from Oxford, 21 from elsewhere in Oxfordshire and 23 from outside the county. The report groups the main points. They include:

  • the loss of Common Ground as a community space, and of The Nest, a “thriving grass roots music venue”
  • the demolition of a building by the architect Sir Leslie Martin, which objectors said could be retrofitted instead
  • the carbon cost of knocking down and rebuilding
  • a new building too large for Little Clarendon Street, with a “canyon” effect
  • construction lorries on narrow streets and the risk to old houses on St John Street and Walton Street
  • the loss of mature trees and parking on Little Clarendon Street

The Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society told the council the new design was “muscular, bulky and slightly taller than the current building”.

Why it was approved anyway

The report describes Common Ground as a social co-working café and community arts space. It describes The Nest as an independent music space centring young women, trans and non-binary people.

Planning policy protects community facilities, but only those with a community use in planning law. Both units are ordinary commercial (Class E) units. That means, the report says, they “could be lost through the change of use to any other use within Use Class E” at any time without planning permission. So officers judged the policy did not apply.

Officers accepted the scheme does harm. Losing number 25 is “substantial harm” to a building of local heritage value, they wrote. The change to the conservation area is “moderate” harm. Two trees on Little Clarendon Street, both rated category B in the tree survey, will be felled. They concluded the public benefits outweighed that.

The new building is designed to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent against the 2021 building regulations. The scheme will pay £1,033,295 in Community Infrastructure Levy.

What changes on the street

The legal agreement requires footway and public realm work on Little Clarendon Street and Walton Street, and a better walking and cycling link between Little Clarendon Street and the square. The Walton Street junction gets wider pavement on its north side.

Construction traffic for the demolition would come in from Woodstock Road along Little Clarendon Street and leave by Walton Street. A final construction traffic plan is a condition of the permission, agreed with the county council. Any road or footway closures need separate permits.

The report gives no start date for the work.

What it means for you

  • Common Ground, Oxford Hub and The Nest will lose their current units when demolition starts. Nothing in the permission requires the new café unit to go to them.
  • If you live on Little Clarendon Street, Walton Street or St John Street, expect construction traffic once work begins. Closures will appear on our Oxford roadworks page.
  • For other big schemes going through the council, see our Oxford planning news page.