Islamic centre set to open next year (From The Oxford Times)

Islamic centre set to open next year

7:00pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Oxford By Damian Fantato

Richard Makepeace at the £60m (and counting) Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, on the Marston Road, which is nearing completion

OXFORD’S multi-million-pound Islamic Centre will finally open in 2013 after a nine-year wait.

Work began on The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) in Marston Road in 2002 and it was hoped to open in 2004.

But delays in finding funding and problems with building work have pushed the grand opening back.

The centre is now set to be completed in 2013.

Registrar Richard Makepeace said: “As is often the case, deadlines have been stretched.

“We were expecting to be ready to open by the end of this year but we are hoping to have the opening in 2013.

“There will be work going on throughout the year, which is basically the fitting out of the interior.”

OCIS was set up in 1985 as an independent centre of Oxford University. Its new building, on a 3.25 acre site by the River Cherwell, will feature a mosque, minaret, auditorium, dining hall and accommodation for about 40 graduate students as well as parking.

Mr Makepeace said: “Hopefully it will bring out that there is more in common with Islamic and Western architecture than most people realise such as domes and quads.

“If there is a message in the building it is that we are not as different as we sometimes tend to believe.”

It was originally expected to cost around £60m but time and inflation has meant the price increased.Work on the centre stopped when the trustees found they were £25m short.

Mr Makepeace, a former British diplomat in Cairo, could not say what the final cost would be.

He said: “We are very much looking forward to the opening and it will be a very important step in the centre’s life.

“It is primarily aimed at working with the university but we will continue to run our courses, which are open to the public.

“We are not a campaigning institution but we are extremely keen to encourage joint research between East and West.”

Prince Charles is a patron of the centre, which is currently based in George Street, and helped to design the garden.

dfantato@oxfordmail.co.uk