A BID to have St Anne’s College’s 1960s gatehouse listed has been rejected, clearing a major obstacle to the college’s £10m plans to transform its Woodstock Road frontage.

St Anne’s wants to demolish the gatehouse as part of its scheme to build a new library and learning centre.

But its plans appeared to face a serious threat when the Twentieth Century Society, supported by English Heritage, applied to have the 1960s structure, facing out to Woodstock Road, listed.

That application has been turned down by the Heritage Minister, John Penrose, clearing the way for the planning application to go before Oxford city councillors in coming weeks.

St Anne’s said that the Gatehouse stood in the way of its plans to “open up” the college in north Oxford, allowing the grade II listed Hartland House to be seen from Woodstock Road.

A Department of Heritage spokesman said the minister did not believe the gatehouse to be of special architectural interest, with “no special decoration or craftmanship”.

The Twentieth Century Society argued the gatehouse merited protection as the work of HKPA, a post-war architectural practice responsible for university projects.

Society spokesman Christina Malathouni said: “We are disappointed that the Department for Culture took a different view.”

St Anne’s domestic bursar, Martin Jackson, said: “We are delighted with the news.

“This is the second time that English Heritage has asked for the building to be listed. There was not a strong case for it to be listed.

“We want to replace the gatehouse with something more aesthetically pleasing.”

The city council had decided not to consider the application until the listing decision was reached.

The new St Anne’s library would have three storeys above ground and one below, with the building containing seminar rooms and exhibition spaces.

A sunken courtyard will link the new library below ground with adjacent seminar rooms.

College principal Tim Gardam said: “The scheme will mean people will be able to see right into the college and view the frontage of Hartland House, which was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1937. The buildings that are to go are not distinguished in any way.”

In addition to removing the Gatehouse, the scheme would mean the demolition of an Edwardian cottage on the Woodstock Road.

The college was given £1m by an anonymous donor to move the scheme forward.

The rest of the funding will come from an appeal being launched by the college to raise £25m over 10 years.

The architects behind the plan, Fletcher Priest, are also involved in the 2012 Olympics and projects in the Latvian capital, Riga.

The St Anne’s scheme is the latest major development proposed for the city end of Woodstock Road, leading some to suggest the axis of the university is moving north.

Next door, Keble College previously submitted plans for a £50m scheme to create a new campus between Woodstock and Banbury Road, on the site of the former Acland private hospital.

On the other side of the Woodstock Road, the former Radcliffe Infirmary site is being developed by Oxford University in one of the biggest development projects seen in the city for a century.

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