CAMBRIDGE HALLS
Cambridge Halls is located within Manchester Metropolitan University’s All Saints Campus. It is bounded by Cambridge Street, Chatham Street, Boundary Street and a service road to the north.
The halls are located close to existing university buildings and have excellent connectivity to the larger university Birley Fields Campus.
Unite Students has an existing presence within the local area, with current student accommodation located at Sir Charles Groves Hall and Kincardin.
Site location map – click to enlarge
Why is additional student accommodation required in this location?
Over 100,000 students
study at Greater Manchester’s five universities, with Manchester housing one of the largest student populations in the UK. It is anticipated that Manchester will have over 120,000 full-time students by the 2028–2029 academic year, with demand for student accommodation rising by approximately 2% annually.
There are currently 35,000 students
enrolled at the Manchester Metropolitan University city campus. Over 50% of first-year students require accommodation and all international students require a place to live close to the university.
Manchester Metropolitan University requires around 5,700 beds a year to accommodate students, but has only 2,500 under its permanent control at the moment, meaning there is a shortfall of around 3,200 beds every year.
According to the latest HESA data, Manchester has more than twice as many students as it has bed spaces to accommodate them
Our vision
Through the proposed partnership, our goal is to ensure that as many students as possible have access to high-quality, modern accommodation on campus.
Cambridge Halls has been identified as a potential redevelopment site that could create 2,330 student beds on the university campus. The existing accommodation is thirty years old and provides only 770 beds with shared bathrooms and requires significant modernisation to meet contemporary student needs.
Providing what students want
According to accommodation application data, en-suite accommodation provided at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Archway Hall is significantly more popular with students. This suggests that students want better quality, modern accommodation, which redevelopment of this site can provide within the Manchester Metropolitan University campus.
As long-term community stakeholders, Manchester Metropolitan University and Unite Students recognise that additional residential accommodation requires wider infrastructural support. The proposals therefore propose to deliver additional community benefits which will be accessible to the wider community.
Redevelopment of Cambridge Halls within the All Saints campus provides the opportunity to address the significant undersupply of modern, fit-for-purpose student beds in Manchester and would offer the following benefits:
Increasing student beds on campus, featuring modern rooms and social spaces.
Improved security and surveillance, with students located on the campus.
Improved public realm, including the creation of community and campus facing spaces for everybody to enjoy.
New facilities along Cambridge Street, including community uses such as health and wellbeing spaces and retail.