New facilities at Churchill College unveiled

Cowan Court at Churchill College, Cambridge has now been completed, providing 68 hotel-standard double ensuite bedrooms, in addition to a new multi-purpose meeting space named the Sixties Room after a group of early students at the school.

This gives a total of 200 ensuite bedrooms available for conference clients during school vacations, in addition to 250 standard bedrooms, and complements Churchill’s existing Dining Hall, which seats 400, and the purpose-built Lecture Theatre for 300.

Cowan Court, named in honour of the Benefactor Fellow Michael Cowan, an alumnus of the college, also includes three fully accessible bedrooms for disabled visitors and residents.

The new building is Danish in style, with pale decoration, bespoke furniture, a tree-filled courtyard and large outward-facing windows in all rooms. It is also in keeping with the College’s environmental and sustainability strategy. Green credentials include a highly-insulated building ‘envelope’, comprising a renewable timber-framed building clad with reclaimed oak; photo-voltaic cells on the roof to provide more electricity than the building will consume; and natural ventilation with opening panels to either side of the special solar glass in the triple-glazed windows. Rainwater will be collected to irrigate the trees inside the courtyard, which provide shading for the corridors running around each floor.

Free wifi is available throughout the 40-acre site, together with state-of-the-art AV provision supported by trained staff. There is also the ‘Churchill – Founder and Foundation’ permanent exhibition, sports facilities including a gym, a sculpture walk and a notable modern art collection. Churchill offers on-site parking, is located only half a mile from the historic centre of Cambridge, 1.5 miles from the M11 and within easy reach of the Railway Station and London Stansted Airport.