Once a set of Victorian public conveniences on St Giles, we reimagined The Netty as two impeccably detailed hotel suites — transforming an overlooked piece of civic infrastructure into something unexpected and quietly theatrical.

Situated moments from the Ashmolean Museum and the Oxford Botanic Garden, we allowed the surrounding city to guide the narrative. Oxford’s depth of history, scholarship and eccentricity informed a scheme that balances reverence with irreverence. Custom high-cistern toilets in vivid pink and blue serve as playful, stylised nods to the building’s former life — a thread of humour woven carefully through otherwise richly layered interiors.

Working below street level presented both challenge and opportunity. The original pavement glass-block lightwells remain, filtering daylight down into the suites and creating an atmosphere that feels intimate and immersive. Rather than disguising the unconventional setting, we chose to heighten its drama: gloss-lacquered ceilings to amplify reflection, deeply textured wall finishes to create depth, and layered lighting to enhance mood. The result is cocooning, atmospheric and deliberately transportive.

Throughout the spaces, we curated vintage furniture and found artworks to introduce warmth and authenticity. These pieces bring their own histories into the rooms, softening the precision of new insertions and echoing the layered story embedded within the architecture.

In the bathrooms, bespoke tiles reinterpret a 19th-century lithograph of ancient yew trees from the nearby Botanic Garden — a quieter, more poetic connection to place. Behind the beds, custom tapestries and cast plaster motifs subtly reference the Ashmolean’s decorative arts collection, allowing cultural detail to be woven gently into the fabric of the design.

Open-plan showers extend directly from the bedrooms, while high-gloss ceilings and tactile wall coverings reinforce our ambition to create suites that feel experiential rather than purely functional. These are rooms designed for discovery — spaces that unfold gradually and reward attention.

With The Netty, we set out to add a new layer to Oxford’s rich architectural narrative: one that combines heritage references, bespoke craftsmanship and vintage finds with a sense of wit and theatricality. The result is a distinctive take on hospitality — intimate in scale, but expansive in character.