Oxford North is a new mixed-use innovation district that will bring workspace buildings, open public spaces and homes to Oxford, UK. The vision of Oxford North is to deliver an innovation district where a community is engaged in creating a better future.
The project is being developed by Oxford North Ventures, a joint venture (JV) announced in March 2022 between Thomas White Oxford, a development company of St John’s College; Cadillac Fairview, a real estate company based in Canada; Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan; and Stanhope, a UK-based real estate developer. Stanhope will also act as the development manager for the project.
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The JV plans to invest approximately £1.2bn ($1.61bn) in the project, which is expected to create £150m in gross value added per year. The project is being carried out in three phases.
The Oxford City Council granted outline consent for the overall project and detailed consent for the first phase of the laboratories and workspaces in March 2021.
Enabling infrastructure works began in August of the same year, creating more than 200 construction jobs. Improvement works on the A44 road began in January 2023.
Construction on the first phase of the project was completed in October 2025.
The project is expected to create up to 4,500 new jobs for technologists, scientists and innovators. A total of 2,000 construction jobs have been created as of November 2025.
Location of Oxford North
Located on the northern edge of Oxford, the project is situated on 64 acres of agricultural land that originally belonged to St John’s College. The A40 and A44 roads meet at the roundabout to the south of the site.
Oxford Parkway station is located within a ten-minute cycle or scooter ride from Oxford North. The site can be reached by train from London Marylebone station.
The project is designed to let biotechnology and life sciences companies thrive in a single location.
Oxford North project details
The Oxford North project will include 480 homes, along with labs and workspaces covering an area of 936,500ft2 (89,512m2).
Out of the 480 new homes, at least 35% (168 homes) are expected to be affordable, while the remaining will be for private sale. Approvals for the first batch of 317 homes were secured in September 2022.
The homes will be built on Canalside south of the A40 and will range from one-bedroom to five-bedroom apartments. The first batch is expected to have 111 homes in the affordable category.
Accessible parking spaces will also be provided throughout the development. Initially, 100 electric vehicle charging stations will be provided, which will be increased based on the demand. The developers aim to promote the use of ultra-low emissions vehicles within Oxford North.
In addition, secured and covered parking space to accommodate more than 1,500 bicycles along with showers, changing and storage facilities will be available at the development.
Additionally, Oxford North will also offer a hotel, nursery and a seven-day-a-week neighbourhood for science and technology innovators upon completion.
Phase one development details
The first phase of development included three buildings covering 158,500ft2 for laboratory and technical office spaces within 1 & 2 Fallaize Street. Two linked buildings with four floors and a dry laboratory workplace are accompanied by a new public park and locations to eat and drink.
Each of the two buildings provides 58,700ft2 of space. Fitted lab spaces are available starting at 1,000ft2 and extending up to 115,000ft2, with the lower three floors specifically designed and equipped to support laboratory use on a 60/40 lab-to-office ratio.
A new building named the Red Hall with five floors has been built to accommodate workspace for freelancers, start-ups and entrepreneurs through shared spaces and a range of leasing options from single desks to private offices.
The Red Hall’s ground floor features a café-bar, retail units, community space and co-working areas. The four upper floors provide office space starting from 3,000ft2, designed to support a variety of science and innovation start-ups and subject matter experts.
The first phase also included development of Fallaize Park, a two-acre public park, along with an 80-seat café, a 100-seat theatre, a market square and a landmark timber cycle pavilion.
Design details of Oxford North
The two laboratory buildings in the first phase of development are designed to be L-shaped, with each building having a central and flexible commercial space. The steel roof structures of the buildings are profiled with four distinctive pitches and have large, vaulted spaces with mezzanine levels that hang from beams spanning between rafters.
The Red Hall building is a steel shed designed to have large, uninterrupted floorplates. The skeletal frame of the building is flexible and reconfigurable. The Red Hall also has a cantilevered roof that extends beyond the main structure, forming a canopy over the building entrance.
Oxford North Ventures received approval from Oxford City Council in March 2023 to expand the Red Hall. The expanded Red Hall features a portal-framed opening towards the market square to add doors and windows for public use.
Sustainable homes at Oxford North
The new sustainable homes at Oxford North have been designed around a central landscaped park with play areas, meadow grassland and a network of pedestrian and cycle paths. To improve the biodiversity of the development, approximately 200 new trees, extensive planting and green roofing will be added.
The central landscape of Oxford North provides the most important public amenity space. It is formed by areas that provide a range of open spaces and a sequence of diversely planted habitats for wildlife.
Contractors involved
Fletcher Priest Architects, an architecture company based in the UK, was appointed as the masterplanning architect for the project in late 2015 to develop comprehensive design proposals.
Other architecture practices that are working on the project include Wilkinson Eyre, Gort Scott Architects, Pollard Thomas Edwards, BCR Infinity Architects and Gustafson Porter + Bowman.
UK-based real estate company Savills negotiated the terms of the JV between Thomas White Oxford, Cadillac Fairview and Stanhope.
AKT II, a UK structural and civil engineering consultant, is working on the Oxford North project to provide engineering design for the research centres within the development.
Gardiner & Theobald, a construction and property consultant based in the UK, was hired to provide cost and project management services.
Other construction partners involved in the project include Careys, Mace, Alandale, Maylim, Morgan Lovell and Flynn James.
British engineering consultancy Hoare Lea has been appointed as the building services engineer’s sustainability and energy consultant.
Canadian engineering company Stantec was selected as the highways, flood risk and drainage, noise and air quality, utilities and ground conditions consultant for the project.
The Hill Group, a housebuilder based in the UK, was appointed by Thomas White Oxford to deliver enabling works for phase one and to build the first 317 homes.
BSG Ecology, Spacecraft Consulting, Buro Happold, Hoare Lea and Storey Consulting are some of the consultants involved in the project.
Cushman & Wakefield was selected as the commercial agency for the project, while Contemporary Art Society Consultancy was hired as the public art consultancy.
