A planned upgrade by Oriel College to the Rhodes building on High Street has prompted complaints about its affect on the city skyline.
The Oxford Victorian Society warns that “plans by Oriel College to make major alterations to the Rhodes Building on Oxford High Street will unnecessarily damage a listed building and irreversibly alter views of Oxford’s skyline.”
The architects have defended the proposed modern style. The plans involve adding another floor to the building’s roof for eleven more student rooms as well as creating disabled access to every floor.
The college has identified the Rhodes building as the most suitable location for additional undergraduate accommodation and is hoping to modernise the building more generally.
“It will unnecessarily damage a listed building”
The Architects, Marcus Beale, have claimed the new roof will be “unashamedly modern” while avoiding any fundamental change in the look of the building.
But the Victorian Society feels the historic roofscape, visible from St Mary’s Tower, will be “harmed”.
It claims that the change would directly contravene the Colleges’ own policy on ensuring that alterations to buildings do not become an ‘intrusion’ on Oxford’s iconic views.
The building was designed by Basil Champneys in 1908. The upgrade will also involve resizing the ground floor windows to ensure that the building is better connected to the street.
The Victorian Society also claims that this resizing of the windows will damage the buildings facade. It is believed Champneys deliberately set the window sizes as they are to give the building a feeling of depth.
The upgrade will also involve moving the washing accommodation from the basement and remove the coal stores for each set, which are no longer needed.
The Victorian Society is hoping that its submission to English Heritage for a change of listed status from grade 2 to grade 2* for the building will be accepted. Oxfordshire County Council would then have to take this into account when considering planning permission.
This change of status means the building would be classed as “particularly important of more than special interest” and be considered in the top 5% of buildings that are considered worth protecting.
However this change in status will take some time to come into effect.
