Strawberry Gardens Public Exhibition

The Proposed Development comprises the demolition of the former Barker & Stonehouse building, the change of use of the Strawberry House for use as student accommodation, and the erection of a Purpose-Built Student Accommodation building comprising up to 250 units at the Site.

The layout of the Proposed Development sees the new PBSA building take an inverted L-shape which allows for an area of public realm to be created in the east of the Site and an area of external amenity space to the west of the new building. This also allows for Strawberry House to be retained and celebrated, which is a significant benefit of the scheme.

It is proposed that the PBSA building will extend to 6-storeys in the south and step down to 5-storeys in the north. A 2.5-storey glazed link will connect the new PBSA building to Strawberry House, which will be internally refurbished to provide student accommodation and amenity space. The height is considered to be in keeping with the height of St James’ View to the west, although there is a level change between these two sites, whilst the proposed PBSA will be smaller than Vita Student’s 9-storey Strawberry Place PBSA scheme on the opposite side of the road.

The proposed scheme would provide up to 250 bedrooms. In addition to bedrooms, the ground floor is proposed to comprise a substantial amount of amenity space. These areas far exceed many other PBSA operators which provide significantly less amenity space per bedspace. A further area of external amenity space is also to be provided.

The scheme is proposed to be car free with the exception of accessible parking but will provide for drop off and servicing.