MMU and Unite table £400m PBSA plan
Should the city council consent, Cambridge Halls off Cavendish Street will be razed to make way for two PBSA blocks rising to 30 and 24 storeys, creating 2,302 student beds on the two-acre site neighbouring the university.
Earlier this year, Manchester Metropolitan University and Unite inked a £390m joint venture to develop the scheme. Now, a planning application for the project has been lodged with Manchester City Council.
Designed by architect Cartwright Pickard, the £400m scheme would be delivered across two phases to ensure the university can maintain a sufficient supply of beds during the development.
If approved, work will start in 2026 with the smaller 24-storey block, which would accommodate 1,101 bedrooms, split across 1,077 standard cluster rooms and 34 studios, by spring 2029.
Phase two concerns the 1,201-bed 30-storey northern block, which would provide 443 standard cluster rooms, 175 studios, 413 affordable cluster rooms, and 170 cluster rooms specifically for post-graduates.
The Cambridge Halls scheme is expected to be fully operational under Unite Students by the end of 2030.
Cambridge Halls’ two blocks would be split by a central walkway, and each surround a landscaped central courtyard offering views and maximising sunlight. Re-form has undertaken landscape designs.
On each block’s seventh floor, external terraces feature a bodyweight exercise area, table tennis tables, a communal dining space, and a netted multi-use games court for football, basketball, and netball.
Both sites would have a gym and wellness studio, which provides access to the terrace for outdoor yoga.
Cambridge Halls will undergo a much-needed modernisation with the development. Credit: via planning documents
In addition, 13,750 sq ft of commercial and community space to support the site as a student accommodation campus is to be provided across the ground floors.
Pedestrian access from Chatham Street and Cambridge Street would remain unaltered. It is envisioned that the development will be car-free, with no parking provision.
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A planning statement submitted to Manchester City Council by Turley suggests the scheme could generate £9.7m in expenditure per academic year from the 2,302 students, with their guests potentially bringing in another £1.3m to the city.
The statement also suggests the PBSA development would free up some 390 HMOs, opening up housing for nearly 1,000 residents.
The project team includes Cumming Group, Waterman Group, Arup, Ashton Fire, and Atkins Realis.
To view the application, use the planning reference 142888/FO/2025 in Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
Can’t believe they have improved and extended a decent green space to have that overlooking it. Surely Manchester deserves better than this? I don’t mind the ground level but the towers look rubbish.
By Anonymous
Dull dull dull
By Andee
With so much student accommodation being built in the city centre I hope the council are looking at plans for Fallowfield and returning the terrace houses back to residential use.
By Anonymous
All good and well I’m a student just come out of Cambridge halls but this lovely complex has been at the cost of people’s jobs I’m all for making it better the Cambridge halls aren’t great but when people are loosing there jobs shame on you MMU.
By Anonymous
It just looks very 1970s
By Anonymous
Why ban cyclists across the site? The detour won’t be used. Hulme will be cut off. Not sustainable.
By K Yates
The design reminds me of the 1960s.
There us a much needed increase in PBSA and enahcing existing site is a key to doing this.
Just not sure if we shouod be building like that.
By Voice of un-reason
Oh god it look like council flat…seem poor design.
By G J Kitchener
This design looks soul crushing.
By Anonymous
Why is Manchester aiming so low? There are better new PBSA in Glasgow and Bristol.
By Anonymous
The skullduggery of cutting off a key cycle route by the university is shameful
By Anonymous
Awful design
By Anonymous
Even the CGI images make it look like a 1960s tower block overdue for demolition or refurbishment. Are the architects not ashamed?
By Anonymous
goodness gracious me!!! what an awful scheme.
By Anonymous
Very bland design.
By MJ
I’m a Hulme local, lots of negative comments on here from people who DONT live here. This is welcomed, it houses students centrally at the university on an existing site instead of pushing out to the community housing. Well done MMU!!
By Hulme local
That CGI is depression inducing.
By Anonymous
These proposals remind me of the Lancashire Hill highrise flats in Stockport which were clad in the 1980s and look very dated. This is a really poor design.
By Anonymous
Would you all prefer a glass box…..
But at least you are all consistent…..design in Manchester is woeful…..blah blah blah
By Anonymous
I like it. Most of you just moan at every new development, like you want Manchester to look like a small village.
By Robocop
Design looks great and good to see the University building this on its own land. Having been to a consultation also pleased to see the scheme is prioritising pedestrians, there are far too many bikes, ebikes and mopeds using the cut through on Cavendish Street at present, they are a menace to pedestrians
By Pedestrian Pete
What a dull and unimaginative scheme. Mmu has built some interesting buildings but this is a complete bore
By Pete
The consultation hasn’t listened to the views of users of the site. The straight route all the way through from Piccadilly along to Stretford Road will be severed by the scheme as its proposed. It needs to be changed before being approved.
By Not listening
You can have other tower designs that aren’t grey or glass, and you’re certainly allowed an opinion on it either way. I’m not sure it’s everyone else that is being sensitive.
By You ok hun?
Beyond the superficial aesthetic arguments this is actually a good scheme in principal, its the right location for students deffo big improvement to whats there now which feels like a compound. I don’t really get the comparisons being drawn to council blocks, these aren’t towers spaced out in a big open space, they are street facing perimeter block and they’re even establishing active frontages along the street, although would of been better to also have some along the new landscaped path on Cavendish St, which is rightly being prioritised for pedestrians, no ones erecting tailgates, its common sense to either slow down significantly or dismount when your in a busy street with high foot traffic.
By Anonymous
Very in favour of densification of this site and keeping student housing closer to the unis, but the design is awful and needs a rework. Needs nicer materials (look at the brick at the former Boddingtons site- similar scale and much higher quality than here). It seems like it is taking its cues from precedent along Booth Street, with similar massing- but a lot of the 1970s uni development is terrible and overbearing.
By Tom D
Anonymous (June 11, 2025 at 5:50 pm)
Lancashire Hill flats in Stockport were clad in the late 1990s. Despite being at least 10 years more recent than you suggest, you’re still right that they look dated.
Sure I’ve seen somewhere that the council and Stockport Homes are wanting to do something with them as they are an ever increasing liability. Demolition and new build is probably the only realistic option given that the cladding of 25+ years ago was only a sticking plaster, but I’d imagine they’d have major issues with rehoming existing residents given that lack of new (affordable) homes available in the borough.
By Anonymous