Oxford City Council and its housing company OX Place were two-time winners at the recent Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) Awards 2024.
The OPT Awards recognise the contribution projects make to Oxford’s character, streets and green spaces.
OX Place was awarded a certificate in the New Buildings category for its development of 10 council homes in Warren Crescent. The Council was also awarded a certificate in the Small Projects category for Women on the Walls, which celebrates equality by increasing the visibility of women in the Town Hall’s art collection.
Warren Crescent
OX Place completed this development of 10 three-bed council homes in July 2023. All have been let to households on the housing register.
Built on a former garage site, all 10 homes are adaptable and energy efficient. Enhanced insulation and air tightness standards and solar PV panels mean the development achieves an average of 68% beyond government carbon reduction targets.
Warren Crescent was designed by Kendall Kingscott and built by RJ Leighfield & Sons. The development was supported with £460,000 in funding from the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal.
Women on the Walls
The Council installed eight black-and-white photographs of women of significance in Oxford’s history in the council chamber, to improve the representation of Oxford’s population within the Town Hall.
Women on the Walls features past and current prominent politicians from Mary Sophia Merivale, Oxford’s first woman councillor, to Councillor Lubna Arshad, the first woman of colour to hold the post of Lord Mayor of Oxford.
The project also includes pictures of Baroness Frances O’Grady, first woman secretary general of the TUC, and Icolyn “Ma” Smith MBE, founder of the Oxford Community Soup Kitchen.
Comment
"OX Place delivers the affordable, sustainable and high-quality homes Oxford needs. It’s a pleasure to see the OPT recognising the valuable contribution our housing company makes to making Oxford a better place to live.”
Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies
“The real reward lies in the life-changing difference OX Place homes make to the people who live in them. It’s great to be recognised by the OPT, and a real testament to the work of my team and the contractors, architects and council colleagues who help us deliver new homes.”
Helen Horne, Managing Director of OX Place
“Women have always played a significant role in the social fabric of Oxford, but you wouldn’t have known this by looking at the Town Hall’s artwork until now. Women on the Walls celebrates and inspires women’s participation and leadership in civic and public life by bringing more women to the walls of the council chamber – the heart of local democracy.”
Councillor Katherine Miles, project leader in delivering Women on the Walls
Commendations
OX Place and the Council also received letters of commendation for two projects.
OX Place’s development of 36 low-carbon flats at Bridges Cross in Speedwell Street was commended in the New Buildings category. Completed in November 2023, Bridges Cross includes 18 council homes, eight shared ownership homes and OX Place’s first 10 homes for market sale.
The Oxford Needs Homes hoarding for housing development sites was commended in the Temporary Schemes category. The hoarding features a timeline of council housing from 1920 until today and was first installed at the former Northfield Hostel site off Sandy Lane West.
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