They would open in the 2030s
The plans for the blocks on Weston Hall and Pendulum Hotel(Image: iQ Students)
Four student accommodation towers, including a 50-storey skyscraper, could replace ageing uni halls and a hotel in a £224m project.
More than 2,500 student rooms could be squeezed into the former University of Manchester north campus site, sandwiched between Sackville Street and Charles Street in the shadow of Mancunian Way.
They are planned by iQ Students, which has announced plans to demolish the university’s 528-bed Weston Hall residence and the 118-room Pendulum Hotel next door. In their place, four towers will be constructed to meet sky-high demand for rooms.
“Manchester continues to experience strong and sustained demand for purpose-built student accommodation in the right locations and many students are occupying the mainstream housing stock, which has a negative impact on the availability and affordability of housing to meet local residents’ needs,” the company said. “The site occupies a prime location within the Oxford Road Corridor, adjacent to University of Manchester buildings.”
The first two skyscrapers will be 18 and 50 storeys tall, connected by a nine-storey ‘link building’. Phase B will contain 32 and 24 storey blocks, with a new green courtyard being installed around the four towers. They will contain in excess of 2,500 bedrooms.
A new courtyard is included in the proposals(Image: iQ Students)
Should the four towers go ahead and open as planned in the 2030s, they will accelerate the trend of students moving closer to the universities to rooms in the city centre and Ardwick, away from traditional south Manchester suburbs like Fallowfield and Withington.
In the four years from 2018, the number of students in Fallowfield dropped by a fifth, while the amount of students living in the city centre rose by 46pc from 2016 to 2022.
The exodus prompted the council to ‘manage a pipeline of student accommodation’ in and around the city centre and university campuses, according to executive councillor for housing, Gavin White.
“As the city’s universities have consolidated their campuses towards the Oxford Road corridor, more students are choosing to live closer to their studies and the lure of city centre living,” he said in January.