Trinity appoints Morgan Sindall Construction to deliver landmark £10 million student accommodation scheme

Work on a new £10 million student accommodation development for Trinity College, in Cambridge, is underway following the appointment of Morgan Sindall Construction.

The new 45-bedroom graduate student accommodation scheme will be located on a part of the site of the world-renowned Cambridge Union Society, on Round Church Street.

The 203-year old Cambridge Union, the oldest debating society in the world, will retain the main historic buildings, which it plans to refurbish in early 2019. Morgan Sindall Construction is also the preferred bidder to deliver the Cambridge Union Society’s element of this joint project between the Union Society and Trinity.

The project for Trinity College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, will feature six postgraduate studios and 39 cluster bedrooms, along with a mixture of restaurant space, bicycle storage facilities and plant rooms on the ground floor and basement level.

Construction work is already underway at the Round Church Street development, which is expected to be ready in time for the 2020 academic year.

In May 2019, the construction company will hand the site over to a team of archaeologists for a three-month period, as the site may cover part of Cambridge’s medieval defence system, the King’s Ditch, which is believed to date back to the Saxon era.

Bob Ensch, area director at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “This is a very exciting appointment and we’re proud to be working with Trinity College to create such a unique accommodation building for its postgraduate students.
“The development will bring a new lease of life to the locality around Bridge Street and Round Church Street, opening up new dining destinations and hopefully attracting greater footfall to the local area.”

Professor Grae Worster, Vice Master of Trinity College, said: “This development will provide modern, purpose-built accommodation for postgraduate students close to the College, and also mean that other properties currently used as hostels can be returned to the stock of domestic housing in the city centre. We are pleased to be working again with Morgan Sindall who some years ago carried out a full renovation of the College kitchens.”

Morgan Sindall Construction’s project partners on the scheme include Bland Brown & Cole Architects, Smith and Wallwork structural and civil engineers, Bidwells Project Management, Faithful+Gould Cost Planning and Cunnington Clark mechanical and electrical designers.

The company is currently on site at major schemes across Cambridgeshire. In Bottisham, the company has recently completed a £16.7 million teaching block for Bottisham Village College. This partnership project between Cambridgeshire County Council and Anglian Learning Trust included the brand new Morris Wing comprising 12 new classrooms, a new auditorium, dance studio, recording studio and a suite of practice rooms.

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