John McAslan + Partners has transformed Oxford’s disused Osney Power Station into the Global Leadership Centre for Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The Centre opened on 8 October 2026 as a £70 million executive-education facility, retaining the former plant’s industrial character and interior volume while adding teaching spaces, 120 bedrooms and shared amenities.
What is Oxford’s new Global Leadership Centre?
The Global Leadership Centre is a residential executive-education facility serving Saïd Business School and its business-community programmes. The school’s opening announcement describes flexible teaching and meeting spaces, a dining room, gym and a terrace overlooking the Thames, alongside 120 bedrooms. It is a few minutes’ walk from Oxford Station and the school’s main campus. Saïd Business School’s opening announcement does not give a first programme date or describe an opening ceremony.
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How was the former power station adapted?
Industrial structure, new purpose
Rather than replacing the former plant with an entirely new building, the project converted, redeveloped and extended it. The design challenge was to accommodate contemporary learning and residential use while retaining the building’s industrial scale, character and history. John McAslan + Partners identifies itself as both architect and landscape architect and dates its project work from 2015 to 2026. The architect’s project account describes a setting where learning, networking and living are brought together for intensive residential courses.
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An agora at the centre
The school says the existing building’s powerful interior volume has been retained and expressed as an “agora”: a collegiate-quad-like gathering space intended to support interaction and exchange. The residential amenities are described as relating to the surrounding landscape and Thames setting. These are the design team’s stated aims; the available project accounts do not include an independent post-occupancy assessment of how the spaces perform for users.
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What was Osney Power Station’s history?
Saïd Business School dates the power station’s opening to 1892 and says it supplied Oxford’s first electric lighting. That industrial origin is central to the reuse: the site’s former infrastructure becomes a place for residential teaching and business-community exchange rather than being erased. The school’s history account gives the historical context.
How did the delivered project differ from earlier plans?
The delivered bedroom figure differs from the planned total, and the reported cost changed between project stages. The available announcements do not explain either change.
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| Project stage | Bedrooms | Cost or funding figure | What the source says |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 funding announcement | Not stated | £60 million redevelopment; £15 million gift | Saïd Business School reported that Wafic Saïd signed a deed of gift for £15 million toward the then-described £60 million redevelopment. 2018 announcement |
| 2019 approved scheme | 121 planned | Not stated | The school’s account of the approved project described 121 bedrooms. 2019 announcement |
| February 2025 construction update | 121 planned | Not stated | John McAslan + Partners reported construction progress and listed 121 bedrooms among the planned facilities. Architect’s update, 27 February 2025 |
| October 2026 opening account | 120 delivered | £70 million project | Saïd Business School’s opening account gives the delivered bedroom total and completed-project cost. 8 October 2026 announcement |
How did the project reach completion?
- 1892: Osney Power Station opened, according to Saïd Business School’s historical account.
- 2018: Wafic Saïd’s £15 million gift was announced toward a redevelopment then described as costing £60 million; John McAslan + Partners was named project architect.
- 2019: Oxford City Council considered application 18/02982/FUL for conversion, redevelopment and extension of the Old Power Station at 17 Russell Street as an executive-education centre. The committee approved its recommendation in September. The council’s later West End Spatial Framework records the project as consented in January 2020.
- 27 February 2025: The architect reported that conversion work was progressing on site.
- 8 October 2026: Saïd Business School announced that the Centre had opened.
The planning record is in Oxford City Council’s committee report for application 18/02982/FUL. The subsequent framework entry is in the council’s West End Spatial Framework.
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