by Debbie DanceO n Tuesday, Oxford City Council will consider an application from Oxford University for its new library depository, which it hopes to site on the western edge of Oxford on the low-lying land which leads up to the River Thames. From here, too, the views of the ‘dreaming spires’ immortalised in the paintings of J M W Turner and the poetry of Matthew Arnold can be seen. Permission is close to being granted, however shocking and surprising this might seem.
What is proposed is essentially a huge warehouse in the foreground of the view, standing up above the City Council’s upper height limit of 18.2 metres in some parts, and showing blank inward-looking windowless walls to house the automated book stacks inside.
By employing sophisticated techniques, the University can use photographs and computer generated images to demonstrate that the new warehouse will have little impact on the view, an experience which Bodley’s Librarian describes as akin to looking for Wally in a Where’s Wally cartoon book in a recent article in The Oxford Magazine (2nd Week Michaelmas). Their architects have added some works of mitigation, just in case, which take the form of a curved roofline, tree planting and colouring the building green.
In our view, Councillors and others have been persuaded falsely by the University. This building will not be fine, and will appear as much larger and more prominent than is being suggested, drawing the eye and incongruous in the landscape.
We do not dispute that a new Depository is necessary for a University of such world-class status. We are told that there are no other available sites, and it must go here. However, we cannot agree, this is not a suitable site for such a building whatever the techniques used to disguise it. This site is in the views and on the edge of the low lying flood plain which was the subject of the extraordinary floods this summer.
The Trust has tried calling on the University and Colleges to get together and think again over this. We have not been successful. What legacy that in the 21st century that the University acts in such a negative way in damaging the very views of Oxford that it has created over 700 years, and in which the Radcliffe Camera and Bodleian Library have played such a significant part.”Debbie Dance is Director of the Oxford Preservation Trust, which owns owns over 600 acres of land in and around the City. Further details and images are available on the Oxford Preservation Trust website at www.oxfordpreservation.org.uk
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