The Jackson Library

The structure was built as a two-storey range with an adjoining lower annexe in an ‘L’ formation, around the college’s Rectors Garden. It sits next to the 17th Century walls of Convocation House, the Grade I listed historic court room of the Bodleian Library, separated only by a sliver of ground between buttresses.

Key to unlocking the tight spaces of the existing library is a modest single storey block — the Link block. Tucked between the party wall of Convocation House and the two wings of the library, it has undergone many alterations over the past two centuries, with little original fabric remaining. Through occupying this space and the gap between the Bodleian’s buttresses, we have created a new entrance to both wings of the library and new staircase and lift, making the library fully accessible. The new lift shaft will be hidden behind an existing stair turret. A further new entrance and stair at the north end of the annex adds new emergency exits and allows flexible movement through the building. Steel beams, added as reinforcement to the range floor in the 19th Century, are replaced with a new hidden structure, allowing the original ceiling design to be fully revealed.