Victorian villas to be demolished for new Cambridge University student accommodation

An artist's illustration of the how the new St John's College postgraduate accommodation on Mount Pleasant, Cambridge, will look like. Credit: BB&C Architects Limited
An artist's illustration of the new St John's College postgraduate accommodation on Mount Pleasant, Cambridge. Credit: BB&C Architects Limited

Victorian villas will be knocked down to make way for new student accommodation in an historic university city.

St John's College has been given the go ahead by Cambridge City Council to knock down three buildings known as Fossdene, Whinside and The Gables in Mount Pleasant.

They will be replaced by five new buildings which will become accommodation for postgraduates studying at the college.

A fourth villa known as The Knott, also dating back to the Victorian era, is proposed to be converted and extended for a sixth student accommodation block.

St John's said the new student rooms would allow the college to release 60 rooms across the city back into the private rental market.

Alison Cox, from the college, told councillors during the planning meeting on Thursday that it had looked at options to keep the Victorian villas and turn them into postgraduate accommodation.

However, there were problems including subsidence which would impact a conversion.

The new buildings will reuse bricks from the existing homes and are proposed to be similar to the character of surrounding properties.

An artist's impression of how the postgraduate accommodation will look like in Mount Pleasant in Cambridge. Credit: BB&C Architects Limited

Ms Cox told the planning committee that Historic England agreed the project would "preserve the character and appearance of the conservation area".

She added: "Losing buildings which have occupied the site for more than a century is always regrettable but the benefits the development will bring are very clear.

"This very high quality scheme will benefit future generations of scholars and the wider community for years to come."

The charity Cambridge Past Present and Future objected to the plans, and said the demolition of the villas with their large individual gardens changed the character of the area from domestic to a campus development.

They believed changes could be made to make the new accommodation "less harmful to the conservation area".

A city council conservation officer had concerns over the size of the proposed properties and added that the development would become a "college court rather than villas with their own gardens".

Councillor Dave Baiget, who represents the Romsey ward, said it was sad to see that some of the trees in the area would be cut down for the new accommodation.

He was positive about the 60 rooms coming back into the private rental market through the development.

A planning officer said some of the trees due to be cut down were already "in conflict" with the villas and the new postgraduate homes would be built "sensitively around the trees".

When a decision on the application was put to a vote the majority of committee councillors voted in favour of approving the plans.

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