People in Oxford are being offered a grandstand view of the day-by-day redevelopment of one of the city's most historic sites.

A special viewing platform has been set up overlooking building work which will open up the Oxford Castle site to the rest of the city for the first time in centuries.

The castle, including the former prison, will become a hotel, heritage centre and tourist trail by 2005.

Several buildings have been demolished, and archaeology work is being filmed for the BBC series Meet the Ancestors.

The platform, which can be reached via an entrance in New Road opposite the Nuffield College tower, will provide a place to watch the digs taking place as well as the start of the site's redevelopment. Oxfordshire County Council's deputy leader, Margaret Godden, said: "There is a real fascination with this development.

"Not surprisingly people are curious about a site that has so much history, but which many have never had the chance to look at."