A HOTELIER has revealed the £1m makeover of the Old Bank Hotel in Oxford is the “last piece of the jigsaw” in an overhaul of his city properties.

City entrepreneur Jeremy Mogford has in the past two years also spent about £2m improving The Old Parsonage Hotel and Banbury Road restaurant Gees.

Now his latest proposal for the Old Bank Hotel in High Street will include redecorating its 42 rooms, improving two kitchens for its restaurant Quod, replacing the main bar and building a new electricity sub-station to meet the power demands.

A bedroom for disabled people will also be improved and the hotel’s reception expanded.

Mr Mogford has applied to Oxford City Council for permission to carry out the works on the Grade II-listed building, which was converted from a Barclays bank in 1999.

Mr Mogford, who became a millionaire by setting up and then selling the Browns restaurant chain, said: “This is the last piece of the jigsaw after we repositioned Gees and did a serious rebuild of The Old Parsonage Hotel, both of which have proved a big success.

“I have been operating in Oxford for longer than I care to remember and it has changed so much over the last two to three years.

“There has been some serious investment going on and so we are doing our bit to match what is going on elsewhere.

“What I have now decided to do is concentrate on making my three iconic buildings the very best they can be for the long term, to see me out.”

When the Old Bank Hotel was converted in 1999 from what had been Oxford’s first bank, it was the first hotel to open in the city centre for 135 years.

It comprises an 18th-century building and an adjoining medieval structure and has views over the city’s spires, the towers of All Souls College and the dome of the Radcliffe Camera.

Its restaurant, The Quod Bar and Grill, is housed in what was once the old banking hall, on the ground floor and is decorated with Mr Mogford’s personal collection of modern British art.

For further details use the references 15/01266/LBC and 15/01265/FUL at public.oxford.gov.uk/online-applications