The Oxford Hub, the organization that acts as the focal point for the university’s charitable activities and volunteering, is seeking to acquire property on Turl Street to be used as its central venue.
The building will be used to “house a cafe-bar-restaurant, hold events, incubate projects, provide training for volunteers, be a venue for like-minded charitably-inclined people to hang out, and a place where students can come to find out more about the issues that really matter to the local, national and international communities.”
Although Hannah MacDiarmid, OxHub President, sent out a message earlier in the week saying that the charity group is planning on buying the new venue, it has now been confirmed that they are looking to obtain the lease instead.
If OxHub is successful in its bid, the first floor of the venue will be dedicated to catering facilities, providing “high quality, ethically produced, affordable food.”
There are plans to include breakfast service, lunch, café service and evening dining and drinking. The rest of the venue space is to be used as “overspill for the cafe, providing informal workspace during the day” which would transition into a lounge bar in the evening.
O’Boyle is hoping that the revenue from these catering facilities “would generate the necessary funds” to pay for the lease.
“We really do think this will raise awareness of the Hub’s work and hope it will significantly improve town-gown relations by increasing the number of student volunteers involved with our projects and therefore making a positive contribution to the local community.
“We’re very excited about the venture so are doing all we can to put a winning bid together.”
Students have also expressed their enthusiasm for the idea. Claire Wright, a second-year student at Univ believes that this is “the most exciting Oxford project I’ve heard of yet.”
A microwebsite has been set up in order to promote the project, as well as a facebook group.
Ox Hub moves in
