New lease of life for Enstone scheme

US museum owner’s vision for a UK motoring destination has been reinvigorated

PETER MULLIN’S PLANS to bring a major car museum and motoring destination to Oxfordshire are back on track after the American philanthropist’s vision was reinterpreted by world-famous architect and classic car aficionado Lord Foster.

Initial plans for a £150-million complex on the 160-acre Enstone airfield site hit the buffers after it prompted protests from local residents that centred around likely traffic levels and a proposed development of 28 upmarket motor lodges on adjacent fields.

As a result, Mullin’s team called in Foster + Partners, who radically changed the plans and submitted them to West Oxfordshire District Council at the end of November. The scale of the development has been reduced by 15% and more than half of the motor lodges have been moved onto the brownfield site as ‘mews’ garages with apartments above. They will form a semi-circle of homes around the main museum, evoking Bath’s famous 18th Century Royal Crescent, and cars will be on display in glassbox garages as if they were museum exhibits.

Inside the curved terrace of houses will be a 3D-landscaped ‘ziggurat’ from which the whole site can be viewed. Cars will be gently exercised on a tree-lined demonstration track. Best of all, however, is the fact that the Mullin Automotive Park has been designed, when viewed from the air, to resemble a Bugatti Type 57 wheel and wheelarch!

If the plans are given the go-ahead it will mean a major boost for the local economy and jobs, and local schools and housing, which will receive a £1.7-million cash injection.