The Old Fire Station on George Street underwent a large-scale refurbishment in 2010-11 by Oxford City Council and the homelessness charity Crisis. The redevelopment of the 115-year-old building presented a one-off opportunity to create a high quality community resource, combining a Crisis Skylight centre with arts and performance spaces.

The building began its life as a working fire station in 1896 and remained Oxford's main fire station until 1971. The vision for the 'new' Old Fire Station was to create a dynamic and inspirational centre for creativity, skills development and enterprise in Oxford. Work to redevelop the building began in August 2010 and was completed just over a year later with a grand public opening on November 5th. The range of spaces within the Old Fire Station now include:

• Crisis Skylight - an accredited education, training and employment centre for homeless and vulnerably housed people;
• A social enterprise café providing accredited training and experience;
• A flexible 141-seat arts auditorium for continuing professional development across art forms, and for rehearsal, training and performance use;
• A flexible professional gallery to showcase new work;
• A small commercial retail space for artists to exhibit and sell work;
• An affordable creative workspace for emerging professional artists, including those involved in digital technologies.

For details of public information and consultation events that took place in the planning stages, visit our Public Consultation Diary, or click here to view the designs for the buildings.

View all development sites...