THE first new development in North Oxford’s new £500m street of university buildings has opened.

Somerville College’s new £10m accommodation blocks are the first to be completed in the vast redevelopment of the former Radcliffe Infirmary site.

When complete, the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter will include a new maths institute, humanities building and school of government.

They will surround a new street linking Woodstock Road to Walton Street.

Somerville’s new 68-room building were opened on Saturday by the university’s chancellor, Lord Patten.

He said: “This is undoubtedly the most significant development in the university for a century.

“Given the restrictions on building in Oxford, it will probably be the biggest development in the 21st century.

“This is going to be right at the heart of the university, with Somerville on the front line.”

It means all 370 undergraduates at the college will be able to live there throughout their degrees.

Lord Patten added: “This will ensure future generations can enjoy what we have enjoyed: an education at this university without having to worry about the cost.”

Former Somerville principal Dame Fiona Caldicott said: “It is always a selling point to people applying to Oxford, because it is much cheaper to live in college-subsidised accommodation than to have to go out and rent somewhere.

“To our students, it makes a lot of difference, particularly at a time when they are so worried about the cost of being here.”

Investment banker Nicola Ralston, one of hundreds of Somervillians who raised £2.7m towards the new building, said: “We thought it was wonderful because we had freedom and our own rooms, even though they were quite spartan, basic and fairly small.

“One of the things I particularly remember was a lack of electrical sockets.

“You could either have music playing or the kettle on, but not both.

“It would have been the height of luxury to have an en suite room with its own bath room.”

She added: “I am sure this is going to become the college’s most popular building.”

Former students in attendance included television presenter Esther Rantzen, former cabinet minister Baroness Jay and Clara Freeman, Marks & Spencer’s first female executive director.

Former students also include ex-PM Baroness Thatcher.

The redevelopment of the infirmary into a humanities building is to be completed by April 2013, while the maths institute will open that year.

Final plans are still being drawn up for the new Blavatnik School of Government building, to be built opposite the Oxford University Press building on Walton Street.