AN Oxford building has become a hotel, 500 years after it was built.

Eastwyke House, in the grounds of the Four Pillars Oxford Spires hotel in Abingdon Road, got a £900,000 makeover to create 10 extra rooms for the hotel – taking its total to 170.

It is owned by University College and managers have spent four years obtaining planning permission from Oxford City Council.

Four Pillars general manager Wendy Procter said: “We have retained many original features.”

Grade II listed Eastwyke House once housed Royalist soldiers led by King Charles I as they fought Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War.

Most recently it was the family home of the domestic bursar of University College and before that of the Alden family of butchers and fishmongers.