A giant student accommodation block in Cardiff, part 18 and part 10-storey, has been given planning permission. The building will serve as a boarding house for Cardiff Sixth Form, a top independent school where 85% of pupils board.
The site is currently made up of undeveloped brownfield land next to the Millennium Centre and Premier Inn in Cardiff Bay. A new L-shaped building will be constructed, with capacity for 400 pupils and 30 staff, with other facilities including lounges, music practice rooms and a gym.
A shop could be built on the ground floor with a section designated as a "commercial unit", owned by the college. In a report by the council's planning department, it was said the developers thought this should be class A1 (retail) or A3 (food and drink). You can get more Cardiff news with our newsletter here.
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The site is part of a bigger development involving two nearby historic buildings - Merchant Place and Corys Buildings - down the road, which will be redeveloped and used for teaching, with an eight-storey building erected behind them. Merchant Place will be partially demolished but a report presented to the council's planning committee said the applicant intended to "retain as much of the existing fabric of the two Grade II listed buildings that remain as possible."
Plans for the Merchant Place and Corys Buildings site were approved in February, and the accommodation block was given planning permission on Monday, October 23. Students would typically leave the new block between 7.30am and 8.30am and would be unlikely to return to it until the school finished at 4pm, with curfews and noise restrictions outside of these hours.
In 2023, 99.5% of students at Cardiff Sixth Form College achieved grades 9-6 (A*-B) in their GCSEs, and boarding fees were up to £58,000 per year. The college is currently based in leased accommodation at Trinity Court, 21-27 Newport Road (opposite the Mercure Hotel).
It was founded in 2004 as a small private college and registered as a full boarding school in 2011. It is now part of the Dukes Education group of schools and has a second campus in the city of Cambridge.
The school is routinely ranked as one of the most high-achieving schools in the UK and was named the highest achieving in Wales at A-level by the Sunday Times' most recent Parent Power guide.
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