From the Principal

Refurbishing the Besse Building

With the generous support of Aularians, the Hall has transformed the grade II listed Besse Building (49 - 56 High Street) into six self-contained student apartments, offices and teaching spaces.

We have made significant efforts to improve the sustainable credentials of the building by installing a new roof, double glazing to the rear and substantially increasing the amounts of insulation in the building. New technology has also been installed that recovers heat from the wastewater produced by the en-suite showers and this in turn reduces the hot water demand by approximately 25%.

The energy efficiency rating of the property was rated as B with a numerical score of 47 (the B range being 26-50). Comparing this to other properties, a newly built property of similar size might also achieve a B rating but with a numerical value of 33.

The design of these rooms was created by the architects Original Field.

There are 54 rooms with over 70% of them en-suite.

A kitchen and student bedroom in the Besse building (Credit: Dan Paton).