Improvements to the Guildhall are being proposed through the council’s Civic Quarter project to reimagine the area in central Cambridge comprising the Guildhall, Corn Exchange, Market Square and public spaces in between.
We want to modernise the Guildhall to make it a central hub for local democracy, while acting as the front door for residents accessing council services.
Revitalising the Guildhall will help us to preserve a piece of Cambridge’s heritage, while supporting our net zero target and reducing running costs and making the building accessible.
Latest update
In late 2025 the Civic Quarter project team submitted three planning applications for the Civic Quarter project to the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (GCSP) service.
Planning Committee took place on 25 March – find out more about the planning decision and next steps.
A further decision on whether to proceed with the project will be taken by Cabinet and Full Council in autumn 2026, before any work would start on site from January 2027.
The proposals are for the Guildhall to be reopened within 24 months.
The proposals
The Grade II listed building will be conserved and designed to operate at net zero carbon, using EnerPHit principles to reduce energy use and installing Air Source Heat Pumps and solar panels.
The ground floor will feature a new customer service centre for people visiting the council, a welcoming public café, along with a Changing Places toilet open to the public.
There will be work spaces and meeting rooms for council staff, as well as work space for commercial tenants, and publicly bookable rooms for meetings or events, spanning the other floors.
The Council Chamber currently has fixed furniture and an uneven floor which makes the space difficult to access, and inflexible in terms of how it can be used, with wheelchair users forced to sit in gaps between furniture making participation in meetings difficult.
While considering the Chamber’s heritage status, the latest proposals would see the fixed furniture removed (while retained for use in other parts of the Guildhall) in order for the Chamber to become accessible, usable for different types of events including community events, and able to adapt to changing requirements such as increasing number of councillors following local government reorganisation.
The large and small halls will have sensitive modern interventions to deliver high quality multifunctional spaces. And in line with feedback received during the summer, the proposal to provide space for a hotel in part of the Guildhall has been removed.
Commercial spaces
We want to provide space for commercial occupiers in part of the ground floor and upper floors to increase the council’s income, to help support the running of frontline services.
We understand that current users of the Guildhall may have concerns about how development will impact them and their business operations. We are in regular dialogue with tenants who occupy the Guildhall about how the project will impact upon them, and their sub-tenants. Some will need to vacate the Guildhall by autumn 2026, in advance of works potentially starting later in the year.
The council will put in place alternative arrangements to provide continuity of the council’s democratic meetings. These are still being considered, and will be communicated prior to autumn 2026 once confirmed.
