The Rt Hon Lord Hague officially opens Norham Gardens

On Friday 2 October, St Edmund Hall officially opened its new 127 bedroom student accommodation, Norham St Edmund, in Norham Gardens, North Oxford. The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, The Rt Hon Lord Hague and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, Professor Baroness Willis, opened the buildings with a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony and speeches to a gathering of 170 alumni, students, Fellows, staff and friends of the Hall.

The site comprises three new Passivhaus certified buildings: the Willis Building, Ashton House and Elliott House, and a low carbon retrofit of an 1874 Victorian villa, Dunbabin Lodge. St Edmund Hall is the first college to build Passivhaus certified student accommodation in Oxford. Receiving this certification requires exceptional levels of performance across multiple criteria, including insulation, airtightness, manufacture, heating and cooling, energy, glazing, and ventilation. 

Principal Professor Baroness Willis, CBE, FRS, said: 

“It gives me enormous pride to see the new Norham St Edmund building open its doors to students. We set out with a strategic vision to deliver the world class student experience for which the Hall is known, alongside the highest environmental standards, and Norham St Edmund delivers on that vision. It is much more than student accommodation. It represents the shared commitment of the St Edmund Hall Governing Body, Fellows, students, staff and alumni to create exemplar buildings that address both our climate and nature challenges – challenges which will impact current and future generations alike. This project has created high-quality, environmentally sustainable and accessible accommodation, allowing our undergraduate students to not only learn about the need to address these global challenges, but also to live in buildings that demonstrate how we can begin to meet them.”

The Rt Hon Lord Hague, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and College Visitor, commented: 

“Since I became Visitor at St Edmund Hall, I have been impressed with its commitment to environmental sustainability and improving the student experience. Norham St Edmund is a world leading blueprint for future student accommodation projects and sustainable building design, both in Oxford and beyond. I look forward to seeing it serve a thriving college community for generations to come.”