Redevelopment of St Patrick's Hall: have your say

Thursday, 12 October 2017

The University of Reading and its long-term partners University Partnerships Programme (UPP) are inviting students, staff, and local residents to view and comment on the proposals for the redevelopment of the St Patrick’s Hall site. This will take place on Wednesday 25 October at 12pm to 2pm in the Old Senior Common Room in The Shamrock Cafe╠ü, St Patrick’s Hall. 

We will also be hosting a small exhibition of the proposal boards in the Lower Lobby of the Reading University Students’ Union (RUSU) Building at our Whiteknights campus on Friday 27 October from 11am to 3pm. All students and staff are welcome to come along during the day.

If you can’t make it in person, you can also view the proposals and submit comments online from Thursday 26 October to Thursday 9 November at reading.ac.uk/st-patricks-project/. 

Why redevelop St Patrick’s Hall?

It is important that the University of Reading continues to provide students with high quality accommodation.

There has been a £100m investment in on-campus accommodation through the University’s partnership with University Partnerships Programme (UPP), which has increased overall capacity by 1,500 rooms to 4,982. This is in response to increased demand for high-quality, competitively priced accommodation and to grow our provision of on-campus rooms. 

St Patrick’s Hall is the next site to be redeveloped, expanded and upgraded. 

What has changed since the previous application?

Some of you may be aware that we withdrew our original application to redevelop St Patrick’s Hall in light of the Council’s decision to locally list Pearson’s Court. We postponed a second public exhibition in January 2017 to allow for further detailed design development with our partners, key stakeholders and heritage advisors.

Our revised plans maintain the University’s objectives to respond to the growing demand for on-campus accommodation, whilst preserving the campus’ heritage. In response to feedback from across the community, changes have been made to the proposals which were last viewed at our public exhibition in October 2015.

How many new student bedrooms will there be at St Patrick’s Hall?

Our latest proposals aim to provide 702 additional student bedrooms.

The proposed scheme will increase capacity, improve the quality and provide a greater choice of accommodation for undergraduates, postgraduates, and returners. The new proposals provide a good balance of accommodation styles at a variety of rents. 

Visit reading.ac.uk/st-patricks-project to find out more. Contact stpatsproject@reading.ac.uk with any queries.