The Headington Co-op building at 152 London Road together with its car park on the other side of Stile Road (making a total of 0.6 acres) is now owned by Cantay Estates Ltd of St Thomas's Street, Oxford, who also redeveloped another Co-op Building, Holyoake Hall, in 2005.
Their latest planning application for the site, restricting the height at the highest point to three storeys (as opposed to the five storeys in the first application), but including a basement), was approved by Oxford City Planning Committee on 7 October 2024. It is for:
Demolition of existing retail store (Use Class E). Erection of new building at 2 to 3 storeys (with basement) to provide Use Class E floorspace comprising use for research and development and offices. Service area, landscaping (including low walls to London Road and Stile Road), cycle parking, bin stores, and alterations to access off Stile Road.
Approved planning application 25/00799/FUL
Oxford Mail, 13 May 2025:“Oxford: Labs and offices are planned to replace Co-op˜
Headington Co-op at 152 London Road will close down in January 2026:
- Oxford Mail, 11 July 2025:“Headington post office and Co-op Food closure date confirmed”
Background
Headington Co‑op originally opened in 1892 on the corner of Windmill Road and in the 1930s expanded into the shops under Holyoake Hall and the top two shops in Windmill Road. In 1979 it moved to its present purpose-built premises on the site of the former Eyles & Coxeter garage. Headington Post Office moved inside this shop in February 2016, and Co‑op Travel in September 2021.
Early in 2020 MidCounties Co-op Investments Ltd sold the freehold of the whole Co-op site with vacant possession, and on 1 December 2020 Midcounties Co‑op informed its members that they had sold the Headington Co‑op site to developers because the Headington store did not fit the long-term strategy of the Society, but that they hoped to operate a convenience store on the site following the redevelopment.
The building was advertised for sale by JLL earlier that year, with the closing date for offers of 12 March 2020:
It was bought by Cantay Estates.
Midcounties Co‑op originally stated that the developers would be seeking planning permission to build a unit with shops on the ground floor and residential flats above, and the JLL brochure above mentions “alternative use potential, including student residential, subject to planning”:
- Oxford Mail, 12 December 2020:
“Headington Co-op sold in bid to build flats (and a new shop)”
Midcounties Co‑op required an option to retain a convenience store with a gross internal area of c.4,000sq. ft within any development, paying a market rent. (For comparison, the ground-floor area of the present Co‑op, including “back of house”, is 14,752 sq. ft.)
First planning application: refused
Five-storey building: Retail shop with hotel above
The planning application for a hotel on the site that Cantay Estates submitted in December 2021 was refused by Oxford City Council's Planning Committee on 8 March 2022. It was for:
“Demolition of existing retail store (Use Class E). Erection of new building at 1 to 5 storeys containing retail store (Use Class E) and hotel (Use Class C1). Service area, landscaping, cycle parking, and drop off bays on Stile Road”.
This description was changed in January 2022 from the original:
“Proposed demolition of existing buildings used as a retail store. Redevelopment of the site to provide new retail store on part ground floor (Use Class E), hotel entrance and ancillary hotel uses to other part of ground floor, and hotel rooms above (building of varying height ranging from 3 to 5 floors with inset 6th floor and ancillary plant room) (Use Class C1)”.
Following the public consultation in October 2021, changes were made to the original plan, including the reduction of the number of hotel bedrooms from 118 to 108.
- Refused planning application 21/03361/FUL
- The site https://www.newheadingtonhotel.info is now dead but can be seen here via the Wayback Machine
- BBC Oxford: “Hotel could be built on site of Oxford supermarket”
Cantay Estates Ltd then submitted the following two planning applications,
each with four storeys rather than five, to run in parallel
The first was a full application for a new Co-op shop with a hotel upstairs,
and the second an outline one for a research & development building with offices for 151 employees
Statement by Cantay Estates about the following two planning applications
Second planning application: Undetermined, and then refused with dismissed appeal
Four-storey building: Retail shop with 92-bed hotel above
On 8 February 2023 Cantay Estates Ltd submitted a planning application for a 4,500 sq ft replacement Co-op store (to include the Post Office facility) + 92-bed hotel on the three floors above:
“Demolition of existing retail store (Use Class E). Erection of new building at 1 to 4 storeys containing retail store (Use Class E) and hotel (Use Class C1). Service area, landscaping, cycle parking, and drop off bays on Stile Road”.
In November 2023 Cantay Estates launched an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate on the grounds that the city council had taken too long to determine the application. On 29 January 2024 the Planning Inspector Jonathan Bore dismissed this appeal and simultaneously refused the original planning application, as the application had already been discussed by the city's Planning Committee in July 2023, and this draft minute says that it would have been refused if an appeal had not been lodged for non-determination.
- Undetermined planning application 23/00272/FUL
- Dismissed appeal APP/G3110/W/23/3322566
- Oxford Mail, 1 February 2024:“Headington hotel plan in London Road refused by Government”
Third planning application: Withdrawn
An outline application was submitted on 22 February 2023, shortly after the second planning application, for research & development building with offices for 151 employees:
“Outline application seeking the approval of access, layout and scale for the demolition of existing retail store (Use Class E). Erection of new building at 2 to 4 storeys to provide Use Class E floorspace comprising use for research and development and offices (including Life Sciences); ground floor coffee shop. Service area, landscaping, cycle parking, and drop off bays on Stile Road”.
This was withdrawn on 13 July 2023:
- Withdrawn planning application: 23/00386/OUT
