Storey’s Way Conservation Area Appraisal April 2018 2 STOREY’S WAY CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL © Crowncopyright anddatabase right2018.Ordinance SurveyLicence number100019730. Copyright notice Front cover Grateful acknowledgementtoCPPFfortheirassistanceintheproductionofthisdocument Can bedownloadedfrom Tel: CB1 0JH Cambridge CityCouncil PO Box700 Cambridge CityCouncil Planning Services This publicationhasbeenproducedby: 01223 457000 : dormerdetailfrom 48 Storey’sWay www.cambridge.gov.uk . Contents AL S PPRAI A 1. Introduction 2. The Planning Policy Context REA 3. Summary of Special Interest A 4. The Trustees of Storey’s Charity 5. Spatial Analysis 6. Architectural Overview 7. Trees, Landscape and Open Spaces ERVATION S 8. Key Characteristics of the Area ON 9. Issues 10. Summary C AY Appendix I: Listed Buildings and Buildings of Local Interest W S Appendix II: Trees of Note ’ Map: Townscape Analysis TOREY S 3 / AL S PPRAI A REA A ERVATION S ON C AY W S ’ TOREY S Storey’s Way Conservation Area shown shaded. From Ordnance Survey. Map not to scale 4 Date: 26 June 2018 Produced by: Storey's Way Conservation Area Spatial Team Scale: (c) Crown copyright and database right 2018. Ordnance Survey Licence No. 100019730. 1:10,000 @ A4 AL 1. Introduction S AL S PPRAI A PPRAI A REA A REA A 1.01 This appraisal seeks to define what is 1. 1 Method Site. The major arterial routes of Hunting- special about the Storey’s Way Conser- don Road, Madingley Road, the A14, vation Area, and to provide information 1.11 The members of the Storey’s Way and the M11 surround the area. about its architectural merit and histori- Residents Association (SWRA) initially cal development. ERVATION carried out the analysis of the area 1.23 It is almost completely encircled S for the 2008 appraisal. This has been by university and college buildings and 1.02 Storey’s Way is one of twelve des- reviewed by Cambridge Past Present grounds. Beyond these spaces, to the ERVATION ON ignated Conservation Areas in Cam- and Future who made suggestions for north, is the wide arc of the A14 dual S bridge: it was designated in 1984 and text alterations and provided updated carriageway. C forms part of the area to the west of the photographs. These combine to show ON city. the essential characteristics of the area 1.24 Since 2008 the university’s plans for AY C and how it might be protected and im- the North West Cambridge Develop- 1.03 The aim of the Conservation Area proved. ment (NWCD) have begun. Whilst the W AY review was to update the appraisal in NWCD does not directly threaten the S terms of changes in the area. The Con- 1. 2. Location character of the Conservation Area, ’ servation Area was reviewed in 2017 it will inevitably have an impact. The W and no extensions were considered to 1.21 Storey’s Way lies about a mile to the scheduled provision of 12,000 cycle S ’ be necessary. The original appraisal was north west of Cambridge city centre in racks on the NWCD gives an indication adopted by the Council on the 8th April what was, until c2017, a semi-rural setting of its scale and importance, and of the TOREY 2008 and this revision was approved by on the urban edge. future cycle traffic that will arise in and S the Executive Councillor for Planning around the site. The main cycle path Policy and Transport on the 1st April 2018. 1.22 The area includes Storey’s Way, All across the NWCD, the Ridgeway, which TOREY S Souls Lane, and the Ascension Parish leads from Girton corner to the Storey’s Burial Ground, a designated City Wildlife Way cul-de-sac opened in 2017. Sto- 5 6 STOREY’S WAY CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL strictly controlled. car trafficwillinevitablyincreaseunless clists andpedestrians,particularlysince aged toensurethesafetyofbothcy it willbeimportantfortraffictoman likely tobecomeaheavilyusedrouteso Road orMadingleyRoad.Assuchitis and pedestriansthaneitherHuntingdon attractive routeintothecityforcyclists rey’s Waywillprovideamoredirectand Pedestrian Path FromStorey’sWay Entrance to The RidgewayCyleand - - AL 2 . The Planning Policy Context S PPRAI A 2.01 Section 69 of the Planning (Listed 2.1 National Policies Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act REA 1990 imposes a duty on Local Planning 2.10 The National Planning Policy A Authorities (LPA’s) to designate as Framework sets out the Government’s conservation areas any ‘areas of special planning policies for England and how architectural or historic interest the these are expected to be applied. character or appearance of which it is The chapter on conserving and desirable to preserve or enhance’. enhancing the historic environment discusses heritage assets which include 2.02 The special character of Conservation Areas. ERVATION Conservation Areas means that the S control of development is stricter than in 2.2 Local Policies other areas. ON 2.21 The Cambridge Local Plan sets C 2.03 Therefore: out policies and proposals for future • New buildings and the spaces development and land use. AY around them must preserve or improve the character of the area. 2.22 An outline planning application was W The siting, scale, height, form, details approved in 2013 for development on S and building materials will all need to the North West Cambridge Development ’ be carefully chosen. Site. This set out the parameters of the development between Madingley Road and Huntingdon Road. TOREY S 7 AL S PPRAI A REA A 62 Storey’s Way 3 . Summary of Special Interest ERVATION S 3.01 The special character of Storey’s many of the trees are subject to Tree 3.12 Storey’s Way is an early twentieth Way is derived from the fine detached Preservation Orders. century suburban linear layout with ON family houses with their spacious gardens houses stepped back from the road (as defined by the original L-shaped plot 3.1 General Character at a uniform distance with large front C of about 42 acres which was allotted and rear gardens. It benefits from large to the Trustees of Storey’s Charity by 3.11 There are three major distinct mature trees, which lessen the impression AY the Enclosure Award of 1805), and character areas within the Storey’s Way of ‘urbanity’ and present a compact, mature planting, which are interspersed Conservation Area. semi-rural ‘face’. W with parts of the collegiate grounds of S ’ Fitzwilliam and Churchill Colleges. • The main central area, which 3.13 An exception to this domestic consists of Storey’s Way lined by large character is the discrete space of the 3.02 The area includes seven Listed detached houses. Ascension Burial Ground, which Buildings, an Historic Park and Garden reinforces the landscaped feel, TOREY and weight Buildings of Local Interest. • Colleges and their grounds. enhanced by the presence of the S Virtually all were built between 1912 cemetery, the Chapel and the former and 1924 (the chapel in All Souls • The Ascension Parish Burial sexton’s cottage. Lane however, dates back to 1875) Ground. and represent fine examples of the 8 architecture of that period. In addition, 3.2 Landscape Setting enclosed, natural space, the tombs 3.4. Archaeology and graves surrounded by flowers, AL 3.21 The area includes significant green dense undergrowth and mature trees, 3.41 St Neot’s Way (Madingley Road) S space such as the playing fields of Trinity which is seen only when one is inside the was probably a pre-Roman trackway, Hall and Churchill College, the Ascension cemetery. and Huntingdon Road has been in use Parish Burial Ground, the wooded areas since Roman times. The additional name of the old University Botany Field Station 3.25 Adjacent to the garden of No. 34, for this road, Via Devana, dates from the PPRAI and the fields of the University farm. It is is the extensive woodland of Gravel Hill, nineteenth century. The triangular area A likely, however, that this vista will begin which contains mature conifers and between these two roads contained to change over the coming years as the deciduous trees. the whole of Grithow Field, and to the buildings on the NWCD increasingly take east of what is now Churchill College, REA shape. 3.3 Historic Development a small part of Middlefield. These fields A were almost all divided into arable strips, 3.22 Because of the comparative 3.30 Until the time of the Enclosure Act but there were also a few patches of flatness of the topography, there are no in 1802, the area between Huntingdon pasture, some gravel-pits and clay- particular high viewpoints or panoramas, Road and Madingley Road was largely pits and a few hedged closes near the and the overall impression is of a arable fields, stretching westwards from Girton boundary common building height and massing. close to the River Cam to the parish The only exceptions to these heights are boundaries with Grantchester, Barton, 3.42 Archaeological investigations have ERVATION S the new College buildings on part of Coton, Madingley and Girton. It had been carried out at several locations the former Trinity Hall sports ground (the seen little change for some 500 years. within the Storey’s Way area. In 2002 at ON Wychfield site). The area in the seventeenth century Gravel Hill Farm it was found that much is shown in David Loggan’s Prospect of the area has been disturbed by post C 3.23 There are however, frequent views of Cambridge from the West Fields (in medieval [1540AD to 1900AD] gravel and vistas from many vantage points Cantabrigia Illustrata of 1685), which and coprolite quarrying, with only small AY along Storey’s Way. was sketched from the Coton footpath areas of undisturbed ground. near what is now the University Athletic W 3.24 Other important features are Ground.