Hilda Besse Building, St Anthony’s College, Oxford
Hilda Besse Building
Howard Killick Partridge & Amis, 1967
Next door to the Investcorp Building stands the Hilda Besse Building.
It's the only part of a 1960 masterplan for the college that was ever realised. The plan prioritised a large hall and common rooms, built to bring students together.
St Antony's College was founded in 1950, after a £2 million donation from the businessman Sir Antonin Besse. The building is named after his wife, Hilda Besse.
Concrete-clad and Grade II listed, it adapts the traditional Oxford dining hall and common room format into a modernist form. It won the RIBA Architecture Award and the Concrete Society Award in 1971.
At its centre is a double-height dining hall seating 250 people, topped by a gridded concrete ceiling with diagonal roof lights and timber reveals. Other spaces include the Fellows' Dining Room, the Clock Room, and the Buttery common room.
The building underwent a full refurbishment by Purcell between 2019 and 2021, addressing decades of wear while keeping its original use intact.
