McDonald’s is to open a new restaurant on Cornmarket St, replacing the current location next to The Crown Pub. The new restaurant will occupy the former site of Leon, opposite Pret.
McDonald’s has submitted licence applications to Oxford City Council to use the new space. The first licence application would have allowed the restaurant to open until 3:00am – the same hours operated by the current Cornmarket Site. The Council rejected this proposal citing the “unacceptable noise impacts”, and a level of activity which would be “harmful to residential amenities in an area of the city centre which includes accommodation where people sleep, including residential flats, The Store hotel, and Jesus College.”
The new licence proposal, currently under consultation, will allow this McDonald’s to operate only until midnight. Oxford students have long visited the restaurant in the early hours – the space is known for drunken Renaissance scenes after Park End. One second-year engineering student described the new operating hours as “another blow to Oxford nightlife”, though many residents will likely be comforted by the avoidance of more late disturbances.

Applications for the new restaurant involve opening a seating area on the first floor, and an alternative entrance for delivery drivers.
Development work on the building has been underway for months, causing notable disturbance to passing pedestrians. The work is set to be complete in March, when the new restaurant will open, and the old site will close.
The full proposal and floor plans can be viewed on the council website.