Clarendon Square

Plans have been submitted for the phased redevelopment of the Clarendon Square in Oxford.

MCa’s innovative Client; Lothbury Investment Management had decided to work with the Architects to plan the future for the prime City centre site. The scheme in Oxford not only revitalises but reinvents the former shopping centre to create a flexible and healthy mixed-use space, inside and out.

The Clarendon Centre was until recently, the predominant shopping centre in the City and had undergone multiple changes and adaptations in the past 40 years. Possibly the centre’s biggest yet is the one currently being worked on.

The centre and its surrounding areas are being redesigned to accommodate more than just retail.

Fundamental to the new design was the early decision to reject the existing covered inward-looking layout and create a new public square, in what is currently the heart of the Centre and transform the existing covered malls into new open streets connecting the existing historic streets to the new square.

To improve connectivity further, a new street is proposed to connect to the new open space in front of the building housing the Oxford Union.

The other key element of the proposals is to introduce new uses to the City centre. To do so, MCa are repurposing a department store they completed in the Centre a few years ago to become a new laboratory for research being developed by Oxford University which has also led to some student accommodation for the University being proposed alongside. The mix of uses is completed by new employment in the form of new high-quality offices space.

Nevertheless, constant on the ground floor and making use of the new open streets and squares will be new cafés and restaurants. In addition, express lifts will link the square to a new landscaped rooftop restaurant with views over the city.