Issue 11, April 2005

Student housing increased at Jowett Walk

Balliol is now able to house over 10% more of its students as a result of an impressive extension to the Jowett Walk complex completed in October 2004. Two new accommodation blocks have been added to the existing group of three towers, providing a total of 47 additional study bedrooms. One of the new blocks also includes a specially created suite of rooms for students with mobility impairments.

The completed accommodation blocks at Jowett Walk

This overall development has been warmly welcomed by students, as the blocks provide high-quality accommodation at a much lower cost than is available for the equivalent standard in the rental market in Oxford. Furthermore, now that Jowett Walk has grown to its present size, the five towers have a strong identity of their own and are designed to foster a spirit of collegiality as rooms are arranged in small groups (usually of seven) per floor around a central kitchen and social area. As one student put it, ‘Being at Jowett Walk is like having your own shared house or flat in the centre of Oxford, but with lots of other Balliol friends next door too!’

The project was co-ordinated by the Senior Bursar, Marten van der Veen, who will be retiring in October 2005 after a period of seven years at Balliol spent managing the College’s finances and overseeing major building projects such as this. The two new blocks are part of a larger master-plan designed by the architects MacCormac Jamieson Prichard: the first three towers opened in 1995/06 – providing 65 study bedrooms, and other public rooms including the Pilch Theatre – represented the initial phase.

Balliol aims to accommodate almost all its undergraduates, as well as the vast majority of its graduate students, in good College housing. Having a decent place to live and study, within a close-knit community, makes a huge difference to the lives of our students. On a practical level, it also protects students from having to pay high rents on the open market in Oxford for generally sub-standard housing in sometimes unsafe areas.

Commenting on this development, Marten van der Veen said: ‘Building this extension to Jowett Walk will help transform Balliol’s ability to house as many of its students as possible. In turn, this will have a major impact on the College’s capacity to attract the very best undergraduates and graduates from around the world. We wish to be in a position to tell all applicants that we can house them in good-quality buildings for the full duration of their courses. Only when we can do so will the quality of Balliol’s facilities fully match the excellence of its education.’

The College is very grateful to a number of benefactors who have helped make this work possible. We have received generous support from the Wolfson Foundation, and this is recognized through the naming of the Wolfson Room – a seminar/social space in one of the blocks. We have also had the continuing support of Michael Pilch (1945), which is warmly acknowledged in the naming of the handsome first-floor walkway spanning the entire length of Jowett Walk, the Michael Pilch Walk. In addition to gifts from other donors, the project has been largely funded by the College itself in the form of an internal loan to be repaid over 25 years, partly from the rents charged to students and conference delegates.

Andrew Graham remarks: ‘Jowett Walk is on its way to becoming another Quad, and we regard it as an integral part of Balliol. Located conveniently between the College in Broad Street and our graduate residence at Holywell Manor, Jowett Walk may come to represent a link between the final year of undergraduate study and the first year of graduate work. We intend to house a number of our third-year and fourthyear undergraduates, as well as graduate Freshers, there and this will help further to create an interesting and stimulating mix of students. This is the third major building project in a decade that Balliol has completed on time and on budget, and the Senior Bursar should be warmly congratulated. We are extremely grateful also to our benefactors, including the Wolfson Foundation and Michael Pilch, for their generous support – we could not have achieved all this without their help.’

Floreat Domus 2005