Accordia
History of the site
Originally the site was part of a large garden to a country house. The country house called Brooklands House, at 24 Brooklands Avenue, is now the east of England regional office of English Heritage. The site was owned by the Ministry of Defence, and included post-World War II yellow prefab offices for the Inland Revenue (HMRC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Driving Standards Agency. These building were later demolished after Kajima Cambridge, a subsidiary of Kajima Corporation, won the private finance initiative (PFI) contract in 1998 to build the 12,500-square-metre (135,000 sq ft) Eastbrook building next to the site in Shaftesbury Road for DEFRA and other government departments. The building was opened in 2003 and the building architects were Carey Jones Architects. The site also contained a Cold War underground nuclear bunker, and would have acted as the Regional Seat of Government, in the event of a nuclear attack. The bunker was built in the early 1950s and expanded in the early 1960s. By July 2003 it was a Grade II listed building.
The site is bordered by Brooklands Avenue, including Brooklands House, to the north, Shaftesbury Road, including Eastbrook, to the east, the Cold War nuclear bunker to the south and Hobson's Brook to the west.
Planning and construction
In 1996 Cambridge City Council published the 1996 Cambridge Local Plan, which identified the site off Brooklands Avenue for housing development. In that same year the City Council approved a development brief for proposals for the site.
By 2001, the joint venture between Countryside Properties and a US pension fund had submitted the first planning application to Cambridge City Council and by 2003 Countryside Properties had purchased the site from HM Government (UK) and had appointed Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects as the main architect for the site. By May 2003 Countryside Properties had submitted a revised planning application, which was also approved by Cambridge City Council, under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 arrangement through which 30% of the homes would be for affordable housing. 113 affordable houses were for rent, for shared ownership and for key workers. The affordable houses were grant-funded from the Housing Corporation in 2004 and 2005.