STYLISH student accommodation close to Oxford railway station is now taking shape.

Until April last year residents were able to save money by paying only £8 to park all day at the Osney Lane car park.

Now Winvic Construction staff are working on a 515-bedroom development for student accommodation provider Student Castle.

Dramatic progress on the buildings has been made in recent months and the company is promising on its website to open in Oxford in 2020.

READ AGAIN: Oxpens Student Castle development taking shape

This forms the first phase of the Oxpens scheme, with further residential and commercial development planned separately by Oxford City Council and Nuffield College.

A development partner for the £200m pound Oxpens scheme featuring new offices and homes has not yet been announced.

Mark Jones, Winvic’s director, said earlier: “Student Castle is another complex scheme that requires the skills we have in abundance, which can be added to Winvic’s ever growing list of multi-room projects.”

Oxford Mail:

The accommodation will feature student flats, one bed and two-bedroom studios and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2020.

Buildings in the three main blocks will range from five to six storeys and will also house a gym, games area, lounge, private meeting rooms, roof terraces and a store for 290 bikes.

Inspiration for the external design has been taken from Oxford’s rich medieval history and its famous college quadrangles, and will feature courtyards, gardens, cloisters and colonnades.

The development’s facade will be created from glass reinforced concrete panels.

Students are being promised free use of specially provided Student Castle bikes.

There are other student castle developments in London, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff and Newcastle.

READ AGAIN: Sainsbury's set to open at Frideswide Square hote l

A new Sainsbury’s Local store is due to open later this year at the Royal Oxford Hotel.

Space on the ground floor of the hotel in Park End Street has been marketed since the closure of Bamboo restaurant last year.

Oxford Mail:

Property consultants VSL said the supermarket giant, which also runs stores in Magdalen Street, St Aldate’s and the Westgate Centre, has bought a 15-year lease.

Liberal Democrat county councillor John Howson said one reason Sainsbury’s has chosen the hotel location, with its entrance on Frideswide Square, could be its proximity to the new Student Castle development.

He added: “The students will be right on their doorstep.”

Oxford Mail:

There is a premises licence application for the sale of alcohol from 7am to 11pm, and a planning application for new signage but it is understood that a change of use application will not be necessary.

The premises licence application is for the sale of alcohol from 7am to 11pm, seven days a week, and its ‘consumption off the premises’. Any objections need to be made by May 10.