Master's Field development: pavilion (centre) and accommodation blocks on either side, seen from the playing field (photo: Stuart Bebb)
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Master’s Field: overview

Above: Accommodation blocks flank a central pavilion. The blocks, not all in view, are (right) Block A (undergraduates), Block B1 (Fellows), Block B2 (graduates); (left) Block C (graduates) and Block D (graduates).

The new Master’s Field development is about five minutes’ walk away from the College’s Broad Street site. It has over 200 study bedrooms for undergraduate and graduate students in ten accommodation blocks. Its completion means that Balliol can now offer all undergraduates accommodation for all the years of their course and has some 60 more rooms for graduates than before. 

At the centre of the site is a pavilion, with changing rooms and a squash court beneath it, as well as the energy centre that services the whole site. There is also accommodation for Fellows, including a flat for the visiting Eastman Professor.

Access from the south end is from Jowett Walk. Here the blocks, including the undergraduate block, are grouped around a beech tree at the centre of a ‘quad’, which leads to the Master’s Field itself — Balliol’s sportsground — and the Pavilion. The blocks on the other side of the Pavilion can be reached from the quad via a path behind the Pavilion, or from entrances on St Cross Road. These blocks, all for graduates, are opposite Holywell Manor, the centre of Balliol’s graduate community, and St Cross Church, the home of Balliol’s Historic Collections Centre. The Pavilion and many of the rooms look out on to the playing field and Oxford landmarks. The south end of the site is adjacent to Balliol’s Jowett Walk buildings, where there is further Balliol student accommodation. 

The photographs above and below were taken by Stuart Bebb following the departure of the builders in June 2021. The newest rooms will be furnished over the summer and ready for occupation in Michaelmas Term 2021, when Block A (already occupied) will become the undergraduate block.

For more detail and photographs, see also:
• Master’s Field: accommodation
• Master’s Field: pavilion, squash court and changing rooms 

Master's Field development:  view from quad through to playing field (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development: access path behind pavilion (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  view between pavilion under pergola and D block towards playing field (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  side view of pavilion and graduate blocks at north end (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  Pavilion seen from playing field with accommodation block on either side (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development: entrance from St Cross Road (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development: view from playing field back to beech tree between two blocks (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  view from upper floor of graduate accommodation block towards Jowett Walk (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  window of graduate room looking on to St Cross Building (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  View from graduate room on to Holywell Manor and St Cross Church (photo: Stuart Bebb)
Master's Field development:  bicycle stands and street view on St Cross Road (photo: Stuart Bebb)