Features

Meet in Oxford

30 Jan 2013 by Michelle Harbi
What better way to add gravitas to your meeting than hold it in the City of Dreaming Spires? Michelle Mannion finds out what venues are on offer PEMBROKE COLLEGE

Founded in 1624, Pembroke is one of the 38 colleges that make up the University of Oxford. Its alumni includes everyone from Samuel Johnson to Michael Heseltine, while JRR Tolkien and Roger Bannister taught here. Walking into the serene Old Quad, you immediately feel at a remove from the bustling city centre.

The 19th-century dining hall, with its high wooden vaulted ceiling and heraldic shields, can host 150 delegates for dinner or 120 theatre-style – its upstairs gallery has a cabinet full of memorabilia commemorating Bannister’s four-minute mile, and can hold a small reception. There are several smaller meeting rooms, while the stone-walled college bar can be used for drinks and marquees can be set up.

As we went to press a £35 million extension was about to open with a 170-seat lecture theatre, meeting rooms, a café and 96 bedrooms, bringing the number of en suite bedrooms available outside term time to 186. Limited room availability in term time means large conferences are best organised in August, September or at Easter. Dinners and receptions are possible year-round.

EXAMINATIONS SCHOOLS

Inaugurated in 1883, the Grade II Listed Examinations Schools is where thousands of the university’s undergraduates sit their exams. It is also Oxford’s largest city-centre conference venue, with almost 1,200 sqm of floor space.

On the ground level are 11 elegant rooms for between ten and 120 people, all with ornate clocks set to precisely the same time. Up a sweeping staircase are the North, South and East School rooms, each attractive, high-ceilinged spaces with wood panelling and oil portraits. The T-shaped South holds 440 delegates theatre-style and has an examiner’s throne designed by Sir Christopher Wren, while the North accommodates 330 and the East 160. Availability is limited in term time.

OXFORD TOWN HALL

The city’s municipal headquarters since 1897, this Grade II Listed building has a range of historic spaces. The grand Main Hall boasts a soaring alcove ceiling, elaborate plasterwork and a Henry Willis organ (its twin is in Blenheim Palace) and holds 500 delegates theatre-style (742 including the balcony). The beautiful Assembly Room and Old Library adjoin each other and hold 120 and 100 people for dinner respectively, while the Council Chamber seats 106. The Court room, the former magistrates’ court, was used in episodes of Inspector Morse and seats 93, while the Judge and Jury rooms offer boardroom set-ups.

MACDONALD RANDOLPH HOTEL

Morse aficionados will love the Randolph – the city’s only five-star hotel, its bar was a regular haunt of the TV detective, who declared it served “a decent pint”. It has duly been named the Morse bar and its walls feature stills from the show.

Built in 1864, the centrally located property has a refined, welcoming feel. The ground-floor ballroom has huge crystal chandeliers that are replicas of those from the Titanic – it holds 230 guests for a banquet and has a pre-function area with a bar. Also adjoining the bar, the Lancaster room hosts 100 for a reception, and there are several smaller meeting rooms. The hotel has 151 stylish guestrooms, a small spa and gym.

ASHMOLEAN

Britain’s oldest public museum, the Ashmolean was founded in 1683 and houses the university’s superb art and archaeology collections. The current site was inaugurated in 1845, though it reopened in 2009 following a major reconstruction that kept the neoclassical façade but created a striking new five-floor building arranged around an atrium. Its galleries showcase artefacts and art from 8,000BC to the present, with treasures including Guy Fawkes’ lantern, the mantle of Powhatan (the father of Pocahontas), and the world’s largest Pissarro collection.

Outside opening hours, walk-through canapé receptions for between ten and 900 delegates can be held in the galleries, with guides on hand to talk guests through the exhibits. (Refreshments are not allowed in some sections.) Dinners for 40 are possible in the atrium, while on the top floor there is an 80-seat dining room and a 20-capacity boardroom, both with terraces. Part of the original building, the Randolph Gallery is lined with classical sculptures and can host 170 people for dinner, while the Mallett Gallery of European works holds drinks for 120.

MALMAISON

Oxford’s Malmaison is a prime example of the group’s ability to transform historic buildings into sleek, sexy boltholes. It’s housed in Oxford Castle, built for William the Conqueror in 1071 and extended in the Victorian Gothic period. For many centuries it was the city’s prison, and TV show Bad Girls was filmed here. Malmaison opened it as a hotel in 2005, carving a 95-room property from the atmospheric interiors and retaining many original features.

The visitors’ room is now a sultry lounge ideal for parties of up to 100 people – the look-out point from where the warden used to keep an eye on inmates is now a DJ booth. Five “cells” next to the brasserie can be used for meetings or dinners – the largest seats 38 diners and has a terrace. There is also a 100-capacity roof terrace available in summer. Guestrooms on the dramatically lit A Wing are crafted from three cells apiece and feature the original doors.

THE BIG BANG

Also in the Castle Quarter is this vibrant restaurant specialising in bangers and mash. Max Mason founded the Big Bang in the city’s Jericho district in 2004 after deciding that “Britain had way too many faceless, characterless chain restaurants which offered no real impression of Great British cuisine”. It moved to its new 170-seat home in October last year.

Succulent sausages on the menu include traditional Oxford, wild boar and pigeon, and Merguez lamb (the “spicy bad boy”), and all ingredients are sourced from a 32km radius. The restaurant is available for exclusive hire and barbecues can be held outside in summer, or marquees set up year-round.

FOUR PILLARS OXFORD SPIRES

Local hotel group Four Pillars has four properties in the Oxford area, the nearest of which to the city is the Spires, a short walk from the centre. The four-star hotel is set in 16 hectares of parkland, in which activities can be held. It has 174 guestrooms, a leisure club and 16 meeting spaces – the Cathedral suite divides into four and holds 266 people theatre-style, while others range in capacity from six people boardroom-style to 100 for a banquet.

BLENHEIM PALACE

If you are looking to stage a grand event, there are few more magnificent venues than Blenheim Palace, 13km from Oxford. A gift from Queen Anne to the Duke of Marlborough following his victory in the 1704 Battle of Blenheim, the UNESCO World Heritage site remains the Marlborough family seat and is the birthplace of Winston Churchill. But the upkeep of privately owned palaces must be paid for, which no doubt explains why Blenheim embraces the meetings market.

The Great Hall is a soaring space that holds 250 people for drinks – it links with the ornate Saloon, where the family gather for Christmas lunch, and which seats 70 diners. The gorgeous 55-metre Long Library, with its 10,000 books, Willis organ and views of the Capability Brown-designed grounds, holds 600 people for a reception, while the elegant Orangery seats 180 diners and overlooks the Italian Garden.

The Marlborough and Courtyard rooms accommodate 120 and 180 delegates theatre-style respectively, and there are smaller rooms for board meetings. Teambuilding events can be staged in the grounds – try the 007-inspired Marlborough Assignment, which encompasses challenges such as code breaking and sniper shooting, with “Bond girls” on hand to help. Summer barbecues, trout fishing and tours of the State Rooms are also possible.

EYNSHAM HALL

Set in a 1,215-hectare country estate 18km from Oxford, Eynsham Hall is a Grade II Listed mock Jacobean mansion built as a family home in 1908 and now a stylish hotel and conference centre. It’s well set up for meetings and incentives, with 40 spaces for between two and 150 people in the main house and outer buildings, and 19 hectares of grounds available for activities – these can include quad biking, 4x4 blind driving, wacky racing, sheepdog handling and tribal dance-offs.

On the ground floor, the adjoining Green room, Red room and Library have big fireplaces and pretty views, and hold 100, 80 and 50 people for dinner respectively. Upstairs, two smaller rooms feature beautiful hand-painted Oriental wallpaper from the Georgian house that stood here previously. There are 126 guestrooms, a health club, tennis court and croquet lawn, and up to 5,000 delegates can be accommodated for corporate days.

INCENTIVE OPTIONS

  • Helicopter flights from London Oxford airport
  • Punting on the River Thames
  • Cooking classes at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons
  • Personal shopping at Bicester Village
  • F1 simulation at the Williams F1 Conference Centre
  • Afternoon tea in Christ Church’s dining room, the inspiration for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts hall
Visit meetoxfordshire.com, visitengland.com
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