The proposed development seen from Carfax (image from planning application)
The developers say: “This square will bring new life into the centre… this form of aesthetically pleasing open area does not currently exist in Oxford. It will draw small businesses back into the city and permanently enhance the historic centre.” A planning application is with the City Council.
Overhead view looking from Queen Street (image from planning application)
The ground and first floors would be retail and hospitality, with offices on the upper floors. Two blocks would have roof terraces for dining. The new square would be pedestrian-only with a central water feature, and opportunities for Christmas markets, ice skating or open-air concerts.
The "Queen Elizabeth II Mall" looking into the square (image from planning application)
Clarendon Square would have “continuous commercial frontage at ground floor providing shops, restaurants and office entrances”. As well as the entrances from Queen Street and Cornmarket, there would be a new thoroughfare from Carfax, where land was recently acquired by Clarendon owners Goldmoney.
Artist's impression of the public square (image from planning application)
Oxford could get a new city centre public square as part of ambitious plans to replace the Clarendon Centre, published today – with a classical-style design by King Charles’ favourite architect Quinlan Terry invoking “associations with place-making and boutique shopping”. #makeoxfordbridgertonagain
Ah! Well, that is very lovely! Cannot promise our content will be entirely relevant for the many US followers we seem to have just acquired, but it is absolutely LLM free... (as the typos I make show) Thanks for clearing it up!
Folks, we've suddenly picked up a lot of new followers. Hi! Welcome! This is us..
We're curious as to what brought you to us? Did we end up on some sort of capybara list? Or are you all bots?
Our channel here is news from Oxford, UK.
1300 houses have already been agreed on neighbouring sites, including a new primary school. The application, which is an Environmental Impact Assessment screening request, has been lodged with Cherwell District Council.
Map of site for 1300 new homes
625 houses could be built on the southern edge of Banbury. An early-stages planning application has been lodged for a site between the Salt Way bridleway and Wykham Lane, already identified in Cherwell District Council’s emerging Local Plan.
Recent months have seen a spate of such incidents in the South-East. In 2023, conspiracy theorists marched through Oxford with placards protesting against 15-minute cities, vaccine passports, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 5G transmitters. www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-...
Thames Valley Police believe that a fire at a 5G mast in Cutteslowe, which closed the A40 for several hours, was started deliberately. Based on reports from fire services, they believe intruders forced entry and used an unidentified liquid to start the fire at around 8.45pm yesterday.
Signs, including 'Rape is Rape, not a political prop' 'Not in our name - stop scapegoating'
"Too many of us have been abused to hand over our power to men who want to lie about our suffering - we are perfectly capable of speaking for ourselves." [📷 in thread, Roger Close]
In a statement, the group said “We stand with the 100 women's rights groups who recently wrote to the prime minister calling for urgent action against the weaponisation of violence against women and girls by far-right groups and mainstream politicians to further a racist, anti-migrant agenda."
Two people, three union flags, one says 'the Oxfordshire Patriots' a second 'Stop the Boats'
They say that the campaign is a brutal hijacking of the real pain and suffering of victims of sexual violence, pointing to the disproportionate number of sexual assaults perpetrated by white British males, and that everyone charged with such crimes should be tried according to the law.
Large pink sign - Oxford Women against the far right - refugees are welcome here. a second sign - Justice for all victims. No to racism.
Women Against the Far Right are today protesting at Oxfordshire County Court at the presence of the group Oxfordshire Patriots. The group say the Oxfordshire Patriots have been racialising sexual violence against women and girls as part of a campaign to whip up racism against migrants and refugees.
A case study of Damascus Rose Kitchen with pictures of the team and their delicious food. Damascus Rose Kitchen (DRK) received a £13,830 Visitor Economy Grant from Enterprise Oxfordshire, which transformed their ability to scale up operations and accept high-value external catering orders. The grant funded professional catering equipment, branding materials, and marketing support, enabling DRK to deliver services with greater reach and professionalism. Founded by Syrian refugee Nour, DRK began in a small kitchen at Flo’s, Oxford, as a community-led enterprise empowering Arabic-speaking women through food. Initially lacking resources and industry knowledge, the team steadily built experience through pop-ups and small catering jobs. The grant has propelled DRK’s growth. They’ve catered major events, including a 150-guest dinner at Somerville College, University of Oxford, private parties, and a wedding. Their new equipment and branded gazebo also allowed them to cater at the Wood Festival for 2,000 people, where they’ve already been invited back for 2025. DRK now benefits from a professional marketing calendar, festival signage, and a new website launching in summer 2024. This visibility has helped secure further bookings and national recognition, including shortlisting for the Muddy Stilettos and Ox in a Box Food Awards. The grant didn’t just boost DRK’s business, it enabled them to thrive and inspire through inclusive, community-focused enterprise.
Oxford’s Damascus Rose Kitchen is quoted as a case study of a small public investment leading to a thriving business.
Founded by Syrian refugee Nour, Damascus Rose received a £14,000 grant from Enterprise Oxfordshire, which enabled them to buy professional equipment and scale their business.
In Oxfordshire, 2578 businesses used the ‘Business Support Tool’ to find targeted advice. Most popular was practical growth focused advice:
Grow my customer base (72%)
Develop a business plan for growth (49%)
Upskill staff / expand workforce (44%)
Launch a new or different product to market (42%)
For every £1 spent on the Cluster, it attracted an extra £24 funding and created £35 of economic and social value, according to the report. Support initially focused on limiting damage from Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, but has since switched to growth.
The Growth Hub Cluster, a collaboration including Enterprise Oxfordshire and spanning the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor + East Anglia, has released its Impact Report for 2020-'25. In this period it:
👩💼Delivered 178,563 hours business support
🚀Helped 3934 people start a business
👷♂️Created 6970 jobs
Frogs! Capybaras! Water pipes! Massed choirs! Larry Ellison! All in the Clarion Weekend. Plus:
🛥️ Folly Bridge 1, canal boat 0
🚧 Utility firms charged for roadworks
🚴♀️ Walking+cycling news
Our newsletter has lots more than we post on Bluesky, so read and sign up here: oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-week...
Oxfordshire County Council wants ideas for cycling and walking in Henley and neighbouring villages, for a new Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan. Suggestions already posted include cycleways to Sonning Common and Shiplake. letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/henley-lcwip
At the Clarion, we love this ingenious technical development, although a mouse 20cm long and 3.7cm wide might have us standing on a chair, and the cat might be nervous too.
But what type of cheese would it like? Stilectron? Brie-IT? Camemrobot?
Components in Plug-In Modules (PIMs) at the joints can deform as the LHC is cooled to -271°C and warmed again, blocking the beam. The award winning ‘mice’ dubbed ‘PipeINEERS’ travel to each PIM take images and use on-board AI to detect any problems.
Mouse. Image credit: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
Engineers at Culham-based RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) have solved a problem for international particle physics lab CERN by developing AI robot ‘mice’ that can travel 6km autonomously to inspect joints in the beamline of the Large Hadron Collider. www.gov.uk/government/n...
capybara, wikimedia commons, Karoly Lorenty, CC BY 2.0
Children are writing about capybaras more than ever, according to Oxford University Press. The annual Children's Language report is compiled from 500-word stories sent into the BBC. 'Book', 'comic' and 'novel' all appear more than in 2015, while 'Kindle' is down 77%.
corp.oup.com/feature/oxfo...
A 12-year old cyclist is in hospital after being struck by a hit-and-run driver on Sandy Lane West, between Blackbird Leys and Littlemore. Thames Valley Police are appealing for witnesses or dashcam footage of the collision, which involved a red car yesterday around 3.25pm.
Bronze statue (Ashmolean Museum)
A bronze statuette of a Hindu saint, acquired by the Ashmolean in 1967, has been returned to a temple in Tamil Nadu. The Ashmolean had been alerted to doubts around its provenance in 2019 and voluntarily approached Indian authorities for an investigation.
www.ashmolean.org/press/return...
Our website administrator is fully #teampostgres and even installing MySQL for Ghost (our CMS) hurt them… Oracle might induce a coronary
As it is World Book Day, we are reposting this, from @archoxfordshire.bsky.social on volunteers helping children to read in schools across the county.
oxfordclarion.uk/arch-oxfords...
Fittingly, given the purchase of a chapel, a 2003 biography of Larry Ellison was entitled “The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison”. www.amazon.co.uk/Difference-B...
The chapel restaurant would include up to 120 covers around a central brass bar, plus private dining and lounge facilities. The site is close to the Ellison Institute of Technology campus between Littlemore and Oxford Science Park. An application is with Oxford City Council.
