The temporary fencing across the length of the Blavatnik School’s new building site is soon to be covered with a fresh design that aims to tell the story of “A new chapter in Oxford’s history of public service.”

With building work anticipated for the next 18 months, the hoardings provide an exciting opportunity to show a window onto the world of the Blavatnik School of Government. The designs we have developed also show a glimpse into some historic moments of this important Oxford site.

Development on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter

The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, as the site is now known, is one of the most significant development projects the University of Oxford has undertaken for more than a century. Its redevelopment includes a combination of new buildings and refurbishments, which have established college accommodation, doctors’ surgeries, University administrative offices and state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities on the site. The new Mathematical Institute, which opened in October 2013, is the most recently completed development on the ROQ. It brings together for the first time in one building 900 undergraduates and more than 500 mathematical faculty and support staff. Now construction is underway for the new Blavatnik School of Government, which expects to open in September 2015, accommodating over 500 staff, faculty and students at any one time.

See the menu on the right for useful links and further details of the site’s Masterplan.

A little bit of history

Local residents will know that the site is also of great historical significance to Oxford. In 1770 the Radcliffe Infirmary opened there, thanks to the benefactions of an Oxford trained doctor, John Radcliffe, whose name has been given to many famous Oxford buildings. It was one of the first public hospitals to be established outside London, and became an area of important, pioneering research and medical practice for the next 200 years.In 1894, the Oxford Eye Hospital took over the old fever ward of the Infirmary, and fast became a centre of excellence and trail-blazer for clinical and non-clinical collaboration to develop evidence-based treatments for eye disease.

In 1941, penicillin was used for the first time to treat a patient, and also that year the first accident service in Great Britain began. In 2002, a professor of cybernetics, Kevin Warwick, became the first person to undergo transplantation of a neuro-surgical device known as the Utah Array (later known as BrainGate). The micro-electrode array provides a link between the central nervous system and a computer, and holds great promise for new treatments for the disabled and brain injured.

When the John Radcliffe Hospital opened in Headington in the 1970s, development stopped on the Infirmary site, and both research activities and medical services slowly began to wind down. In 2003, the site was sold to the University, and the hospital relocated all its activities to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

The future with the Blavatnik School of Government

We are tremendously excited to be part of the vision for the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter – the creation of a vibrant academic community that can benefit from state-of-the-art facilities and enhanced opportunities for collaboration and education. The Blavatnik School of Government aims to continue the site’s long-standing traditions of fostering excellence and commitment to public service among all who study and work here. We hope that local residents will enjoy reading about the site’s past on the new hoardings, and get as excited as we are about its future.