More student accommodation planned for St John Street in Oxford

Oxford city centre is set to become home to more students at St John Street.

Consultancy Carter Jonas has secured planning consent on behalf of St John’s College to replace and extend student accommodation in the street.

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The Grade II college-owned buildings on the street are set to be refurbished, while a single- storey common room will be added to the rear of the terraced properties.

External spaces are to be relandscaped and communal amenities for the students added.
Work has already kicked off.

"We are extremely pleased that once again we have worked with an Oxford University college to increase the provision of high-quality student accommodation and make considerable improvements to a key city centre site which retain its unique historic character while also making the building more sustainable," said Huw Mellor, partner at Carter Jonas in Oxford.

Contractor Beard is upgrading the external fabric to significantly reduce heat loss and is installing woodfibre insulation to the internal face of the building. The work also includes replacing gas boiler systems with air source heat pumps.

Beard is reportedly upgrading the windows with secondary internal glazing to minimise the impact on the external appearance of the listed buildings, while other historic features such as existing floors and stonework will be protected.

St John's, like other Oxford university colleges, is increasingly under pressure to find suitable accommodation for a growing number of graduate students, and this planning consent forms part of a wider review by the college to optimise the use of its existing sites, especially close to the city centre.

Oxford City Council aims to see as many of Oxford’s student population as possible housed within College-provided accommodation.