The Cambridge City Council Planning - Pre-Application Developer Presentations meeting on Monday 19 May 2025 was scheduled to include a briefing by a developer regarding planned work at Christ's College. The meeting was intended to allow councillors to ask questions and raise concerns about the proposals before a formal planning application is submitted.

Here's what was scheduled to be discussed:

Christ's College Redevelopment

A pre-application briefing by the developer was scheduled to take place regarding the redevelopment of the Christ's College ¹ library.

The report pack states that the purpose of the meeting was:

to give Members an insight into the proposals for the demolition of the existing library and the replacement with a new library and enhancements of the adjacent kitchen and upper hall areas at Christ’s College, St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge.

The existing Christ's College library includes the 1970s library (designed by Christopher Grillet), the Bodley Library (C19), West Range, South Range (early C16) and Bath Court. The College itself is a Grade I listed building, and is located in the historic core of Cambridge City Centre, east of St. Andrew’s Street/Hobson Street, bordered by King Street to the north, Christ’s Pieces to the east, and the Bradwell’s Court redevelopment to the south. The site is within the Central Conservation Area and a controlled parking zone, and has tree preservation orders in place.

Previous planning and listed building consent was given in 2011 and 2016 for a new library, enclosure of the library court and provision of a bridge access between the first floor of the library and South Range and Bodley Library with internal and external alterations.