Former homeless hostel to be turned into flats

Willow Walk was used as a hostel for homeless people until 2022

A former city centre hostel that housed homeless people for more than a century is set to be converted into flats.

Willow Walk in Cambridge permanently shut in 2022, having been set up in the late 19th Century as a Church Army lodging house.

Cambridge City Council approved plans last week to convert the building into nine flats, including seven studios and the rest as two-bedroom homes.

The proposals by Ridley Godfrey (Holdings) Limited said there was no longer any demand to use the property, built in 1817, as a hostel.

The hostel on Willow Walk offered accommodation for homeless people in the city for many years

The site operated from the late 1800s until the 1980s, when it shut for a period for refurbishment.

It closed two years ago when Cambridgeshire County Council began a "streets to home" initiative, focusing on smaller and community-based accommodation rather than bigger hostels.

The developer said it had "tested the appetite from the market" and specialist housing providers to consider using it as a hostel again.

Planning officers who assessed the application said the proposal would bring the building back into use and create new homes.

They said two of the proposed flats fell below the recommended space standards, but considered it unreasonable to refuse the application on this point alone.

Officers also highlighted there would be space in the basement for doing laundry and drying, which could be used by all occupiers.

Planning officers said the flats would provide an "adequate level of residential amenity for future occupiers".