Oxford Brookes

John Henry Brookes wins RIBA South award

TonyOX3

Back in March I wrote about the three buildings in Headington that had been nominated for awards in the RIBA South region. They were the Isis building for EF Language Schools by West Waddy, the John Henry Brookes building for Oxford Brookes by Design Engine, and the Nuffield Department of Medicine Research Building for Oxford University’s Old Road Campus by Make Architects.

The award winners have now been announced, and the Building of the Year award has gone to the John Henry Brookes building. The JHB, as we shall have to learn to call it, also won the Sustainability Award, and architects Design Engine won Architect of the Year. A pretty good haul!

Elsewhere in Oxford, the McCall MacBain Graduate Study Centre by Lee Fitzgerald Architects for Wadham College won the Conservation Award, and general awards went to the Mathematics Institute (in the Observatory Quarter) by Rafael Viñoly Architects for Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School by Berman Guedes Stretton – also for Oxford University.


Mathematics Institute (photo: author)

Mathematics Institute Atrium (photo: author)

Headington Headlines #150

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 10 – 16 February.

Developers @BartonPark_ announced a start on site involving the clearing of some trees and hedges.

The home of John Henry Brookes, after whom Oxford Brookes University is named, is on the market for £1m. It is in The Slade.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex, opened The Highfield Unit, “a state-of-the-art NHS facility providing specialist inpatient services for young people aged 11 to 18 with acute mental health needs” at the Warneford Hospital on Thursday.

The next stage has been reached in the preparation of Headington’s Neighbourhood Plan @HeadingtonPlan. The application to the City Council to ‘designate’ – i.e. agree – the area covered by the plan has been put out to public consultation. Details and links on the Council’s website. The consultation closes on 28 March.

A man from Saxon Way was sentenced on Tuesday to five month’s imprisonment for a racist verbal attack on his girlfriend’s neighbour.

Warneford Lane is closed for roadworks for approximately three weeks. Bus route 4 will divert via Gipsy Lane and Headington Hill.

Although it didn’t seem to make the mainstream news, there were reports of a meteor being seen widely across England on Saturday night. @jjhutchings wins the prize for the first report from Headington.

Active topics on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Headington bike hire scheme
  • Roofer in Headington area
I cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

Headington Headlines #137

TonyOX3

Here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 11 – 17 November.

The Oxford Mail finally picked up on a story that broke on twitter a couple of weeks ago (see HH #135), that a kebab shop is planning to open in the Café Noir site. Predictably they found people to say they weren’t happy about it.

Despite no-one liking it apart from the developers @BartonPark_ and (it is claimed) some unnamed people in Barton, the public announcement that Barton West is to be known as Barton Park went ahead. The Oxford Times made much of the name being chosen by children. Local twitter opinion was unimpressed.

À propos of the above, @BartonPark_ is the twitter account previously known as @BartonOxford. The underscore’s needed because it seems Barton Park is the name of a racehorse and @BartonPark is the account of a racing tipster. On the other hand @Barton_Park is an über-posh nursing home in Southport for people who own Bentleys.

The first of two drop-in sessions about the new school for Bayswick Barton West Park took place on Tuesday. The newspaper report doesn’t have much to say other than it happened. The other drop-in is on 2 December – details, and why I think it’s an important issue, here.

The company running the @oxonbike bike hire scheme in Headington and Thornhill (GrandScheme) has gone into liquidation.

Greenpeace staged a demonstration outside the Shell petrol station on London Road on Saturday evening, ptotesting about oil exploration in the Arctic. Peggy Seeger joined them.

Councillor Roz Smith @RosalindRogers planted a memorial tree for Paul Phipps, Risinghurst & Sandhills parish councillor.

Londis owner @sundersandher started a twitter discussion about who sells the cheapest milk in Headington. It seems Iceland have it by 0.5p a litre.

Oxford Brookes celebrated its 50th anniversary this week. For a while it seemed they had mislaid their foundation stone but @RuthWilk asked the Archivist who said it’s “kept along with patterned tiles from the Darcy Building in Estates” and it seems not publicly accessible.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast live from Holy Trinity Church, Quarry, yesterday (Sunday 17 Nov) to mark the C S Lewis jubilee. Listen here.

Back in April 2012 Oxford City Council said they intended to refurbish their five tower blocks. Consultations on what they plan to do have been announced. Those that affect OX3 are the Plowman Tower, Northway in the Tower Play Base on Tuesday 19 November from 12.30pm to 2.30pm and 5.30pm to 8pm and the Foresters Tower, Wood Farm in the Children’s Centre on Wednesday 20 November from 2pm to 8pm.

Active topics on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Who would like to be a friend of Headington Hill Park?
  • New school for Barton West
  • Hazardous glass in Holley Crescent
  • railings in Barton Lane
  • Kebab shop in Headington – article in the Oxford Mail today
  • New Headington bus routes
  • Survey: Germany & Germans
  • The Local Plan: What is it? Why do we have it? How can it change?
  • Headington event tomorrow 1-3pm – Silver Star Society Christmas Party, John Radcliffe Hospital
  • Headington bike hire scheme
I try to cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.