A GROUND-breaking ceremony yesterday marked the start of building work on the former Radcliffe Infirmary site.
The development will provide Oxford University with a new £500m campus on the 10-acre site bounded by Woodstock Road, Somerville College, Walton Street and Green Templeton College.
The first construction to take place as part of the landmark Radcliffe Observatory Quarter development will be accommodation for Somerville College, providing 68 bedrooms.
Dame Fiona Caldicott, principal of Somerville, broke the ground at the ceremony at the controls of a digger.
She said: “It’s a really important development for the college, benefiting our students as well as helping to secure our future financially. It also means that we will have a magnificent view of the Radcliffe Observatory from Somerville’s Quad.”
The accommodation block should be completed by September 2011, and the first phase of the site development is due for completion by 2013.
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