The historic university city of Cambridge attracts over 4.6 million visitors every year – second only to London. A significant proportion of these visitors arrive by train. However, the area around Cambridge railway station has seen no meaningful or integrated development proposals for nearly half a century and has fallen into a state of some decline.

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners was appointed by Ashwell Property Group to design a masterplan incorporating around 158,000 m² (1.7 million ft²) of mixed-use development on a ‘gateway’ site adjacent to the railway station in Cambridge.

The proposal includes a major new transport interchange, 58,000 m² (625,000 ft²) of residential space (including 1,250 student accommodation units for Anglia Ruskin University and affordable housing), 54,000 m² (580,000 ft²) of grade A office space, a 120 bed hotel and a high quality mix of leisure, retail and restaurant space.

This scheme is intended to give an important regeneration boost to Cambridge while also helping to address the Government’s demands for more housing provision across the South East and East of England. It is aimed at offering a ‘European’ approach to development, creating a development where people can work, live, shop and socialise in their neighbourhood, encouraging a sense of belonging and pride and improving the quality of life of local people.

Ashwell submitted a planning application to Cambridge City Council in the early part of 2008. It aimed to meet the Council’s expectations for a much-needed transport interchange, while balancing the company’s own commercial expectations of the site. The application was approved in October 2008. Detailed designs will now be prepared, with a view to a series of additional applications being made in due course.