Oxford News
Oxford’s County Hall hotel to have 190 rooms across 7 floors
The transformation of the Grade II listed building into a boutique hotel is due to cost more than £60 million and is expected to be completed by late 2028.
A new premises licence application for the hotel, submitted by leading UK financial services provider Legal and General, has revealed new details of the plans.
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Developer Reef Origin intends to turn the historic part of County Hall into a bar and restaurant and the more modern 1970s addition to the building into the hotel.
Once complete, the premises will be operated by EQ Hotels which runs The Store Boutique Hotel in Broad Street, formerly department store Boswells but owned by Legal and General.
The historic County Hall would be the ‘central atrium’ of the new development with a new bar area in it, flanked by a speciality restaurant and the Court Restaurant.
At the back of the building there would be private dining and meeting rooms with landscaped gardens, a terrace and an outdoor garden bar at the front.
The hotel would have two access points, via the historic County Hall or through a separate lobby with a 24 hour-manned check-in desk in the new building.
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Hotel rooms made up of ‘superior rooms’, ‘universal access rooms’, ‘double standard rooms’ and suites would be spread across seven floors, one below ground and six above it.
Bedrooms would also be licenced to allow the hotel to stock mini bars for guests.
The roof terrace will also be a seating a recreation area, the licence application states, with a small bar and restaurant.
A spokesperson for the applicant Legal and General said: “This is to be a large hotel redevelopment of the iconic Victorian County Hall and later more modern building situated adjacent to it.
“The operator is experienced in running venues of this nature, indeed having built and operated The Store in the centre of Oxford.
“The premises will principally provide hotel accommodation of 190 rooms, there is little risk of adverse impact on the licensing objectives.
“Services required by guests staying at the site – in particular breakfast, lunch and evening meals, along with recreational facilities – will be provided on site.
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“There is also to be provided meeting rooms and small conference facilities along with a distinct bar area and two restaurants, along with an external area.”
Reef Origin previously said its goal is to ‘celebrate the heritage’ of Oxford’s West End while ‘opening it up to the public in ways that were never possible before’ while ‘activating a key site’ and creating more than 100 jobs.
Oxfordshire County Council sold County Hall in autumn 2024, and will relocate its headquarters temporarily to Midland House in Botley later this year while Speedwell House, its permanent future office, is prepared for the council to move into in spring 2028.
Initially debuting back in 2021, Jeremy Clarkson’s farming documentary has found global success.
Fans all over the world have tuned in via Amazon’s streaming service to watch the former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter’s agricultural adventures.
Set at his own Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire, the series also covers his Cotswolds pub, The Farmer’s Dog, which opened in Asthall back in 2024.
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The start of series five is out tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3), with further episodes to follow in the weeks following.
Alongside the usual faces appearing in the episodes, the Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir will also star.
The group, made up of real farmers, was put together by Mr Clarkson last year to help advertise his alcohol brand, Hawkstone.
Sticking together, the group went on to compete in Britain’s Got Talent 2026, seeing them win the whole competition on Saturday night (May 30).
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The Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir pipped drone act Celestial to first place, but Mr Clarkson has now revealed the runners-up will also be in the new Clarkson’s Farm.
On the social media site X, he said: “Amazingly, the drone guys are in series five of Clarkson’s Farm.”
Discussing what series five is about, an Amazon statement said: “Amid a government budget that sends the UK farming community into uproar, Jeremy decides some big changes are needed to make the farm run more smoothly.
“But while the farm tries to go high-tech, resulting in Kaleb’s first-ever trip abroad, even bigger developments are heading for Diddly Squat that are going to prove much more of a challenge.”
Since the former Grand Tour presenter invited cameras onto his 1,000-acre farm in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, he has been praised for educating viewers about the British farming industry.
From the genuine financial and bureaucratic struggles to adjusting to climate change, the 66-year-old former Top Gear presenter and farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, 27, who is Clarkson’s trusted agricultural advisor, has also sparked a massive surge in young people joining agricultural groups.
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In May 2024, Clarkson – also the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? –challenged government planning reforms, to allow more farmers to convert agricultural buildings into homes and shops.
In series five of Clarkson’s Farm, Clarkson has a major health scare and is instructed to take a step back from work on the farm. But with the farming community marching in protest of the government’s budget, this proves to be very difficult.
Clarkson also decides to welcome EasyCare sheep, a new breed which require minimal shepherding and veterinary care and even shed their own fleece in the summer, and upgrade Diddly Squat Farm with hi-tech gear, and takes a rather baffled Cooper on his first-ever trip abroad to see how it’s done.
Leaving robot tractors in charge, all is well for a while, until things turn dark, chaos erupts, and bad luck strikes from every direction.
The show’s first four episodes will debut globally on the streaming platform on Wednesday, June 4.
Episodes on Amazon Prime typically are released at either midnight or 1am – meaning there is not long to go.
And then two more episodes will be launched on June 10 followed by the final two another week later on June 17.
US – 12am PT / 3am ET
Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
India – 12:30pm IST
Singapore – 3pm SGT
Australia – 6pm AEST
New Zealand – 8pm NZDT
Saj Malik, who is a taxi driver by day, was caught speeding in a Toyota Corolla on the Oxford Road through Tiddington near Thame on January 14.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to the offence at a hearing at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Friday, May 29, the court said.
Malik, of Mary Price Close in Headington, was issued with a £660 fine and his driver’s licence was endorsed with five penalty points, the court confirmed.
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He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £264.
The taxi driver is a county councillor for Cowley and retained his Temple Cowley seat at this year’s city council elections.
He is also the shadow cabinet member for resources with the Oxfordshire Alliance.
Malik has been contacted for a response.
The court fine is not the first time the councillor has found himself in trouble, having been ‘formally censured’ by Oxford City Council for his behaviour in a debate about traffic filters.
Alongside fellow Cowley councillor Amar Latif, he was found to have behaved in an “intimidating, insulting, undermining and denigrating way” to officers and councillors by a standards committee in November.
The complaints both came from the Labour leader of the city council Susan Brown and deputy leader Ed Turner, and related to a full council meeting on March 18, 2024.
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