All Souls College is at the start of an exciting project to redevelop and revitalise the properties at 10-15 High Street, Oxford. This site offers an important opportunity to renew these buildings sensitively. We will aim to preserve and enhance their value, sustainability and heritage.

To achieve these objectives, the College has a number of key missions:

Academic mission

The project is responding to the College’s need of space, more specifically the provision of Fellow studies, staff offices, and lecture, seminar and meeting space for additional teaching and research activities. This will ease the space constraints on the main College site and allow the College to consider enhancing its wider academic and public engagement activities in a prominent city centre location.

Heritage benefits

The College is committed to protecting and enhancing the heritage of the buildings and their setting in this prominent location within the Central (City and University) Conservation Area.

Commercial development

The proposal seeks to address the deteriorated nature of the currently vacant units that has occurred under previous ownerships over a significant period of time. It also seeks to review the wider strategy for the frontages along the High Street. The College are looking to optimise these spaces in terms of flexibility and quality of the spaces, ensuring that they are appropriately sized for the changing retail market, with key considerations being accessibility and fire escape.

Sustainability

The redevelopment provides the opportunity to invest in sustainability. The College is proposing a low energy deep retrofit approach with the aim of safeguarding the future of the historic fabric, minimising the College's carbon footprint and moving as far as possible to a net zero position. This involves incorporating high levels of insulation and airtightness, high performance glazing, very efficient mechanical and electrical systems and renewable energy sources where possible, alongside targeting healthy building accreditations such as Fitwell to ensure occupants well-being and comfort.

Stakeholder collaboration

There is a particular opportunity to work with neighbours, including the Covered Market, to benefit the experience of visitors to Oxford as well as our collective properties.