Frank Cooper's Jam Factory

Frank Cooper built his Marmalade factory in 1902 in Oxford and subsequently extended it to it’s current footprint in 1925. The Grade 2 listed Jam Factory, is a very well known Oxford landmark and is owned by Nuffield College. Sitting at the gateway to Oxford’s city centre and in close proximity to Oxford Railway Station, it is a prime piece of real estate.

Over the years, the Jam Factory, has been split into several smaller rental units. The aims of the project was to strip it back to its original shell and then to fit it out to modern standards for a single tenancy contract. This necessitated a high degree of new M&E distribution. A substantial part of our role was to ensure that any new holes created for services traversing the building, was in structurally sound positions.

Our methodology for most historical building projects, is to unpick the alterations and additions that were carried out over the years. Only when we thoroughly understand what the building looked like at day one and the impact of all subsequent alterations, can we report to the client what can or cannot be done in relation to the building’s structure.

Finding historical building plan information is an essential part of our process. Although we normally carry out a thorough visual survey of a building, it has its limitations as many years’ worth of changes often hide the original structure. For the Jam Factory refurbishment project, Oxfordshire History Centre provided us with historical plans of the building. These plans were essential in our understanding of the structure. It guided the advice we provided to the project.

Works commenced middle 2019 and are being wrapped up at the moment.

We worked with Savills, Bidwells, Qoda Consulting and Benfield & Loxley to bring this fantastic Oxford landmark up to the latest building standards whilst retaining the rich architectural character of the red brick and Bath stone facades.