Our Proposals

Churchill Living is bringing forward proposals for a new retirement living development at the former Hemdean House School site on Hemdean Road, Caversham.

The redevelopment will make efficient use of a vacant brownfield site in a sustainable location and meet the need for older person homes, providing much-needed one and two bedroom retirement apartments.

Churchill’s emerging vision for the site includes:

A high-quality independent retirement living community providing 34x one and 17x two bedroom apartments, with separate vehicular access from Hemdean Road.
Sensitive conversion of the schoolhouse to 10x one-bedroom apartments with parking.
Sensitive conversion of lodge into a 2-bed cottage with parking.
Retention of mature trees and the introduction of new landscaping to enhance the site’s character and environmental quality.
Retention and active management of the densely wooded northern portion of the site, near Knighton Close and Queen Street.

The redevelopment will help meet local housing needs, bring a vacant site back into productive use, and contribute positively to the area’s social, environmental and economic wellbeing.

A new Churchill Living lodge

Churchill’s proposed development would provide a high-quality independent retirement living accommodation comprising 51x apartments provided as 34 x one-bedroom and 17 x two-bedroom apartments, with private car parking, as well as covered mobility scooter parking.

Residents will benefit from a communal Owner’s Lounge and coffee bar to promote social interaction and provide a space for events and gatherings.

All developments by Churchill Living provide high quality landscape amenity gardens, designed for passive exercise and the visual enjoyment of residents over 60 years of age, rather than active recreational uses. Planting is considered for longevity, colour all year, seasonal change, maintenance and local native biodiversity. Churchill Living have won awards for excellence for their landscaped gardens.

Parking

The proposal includes a total of 37x parking spaces across the site. This includes:

17x unallocated parking spaces for the apartments and undercover parking for electric mobility buggies.
Ten parking spaces, as well as an additional visitor parking space, will be provided for the ten apartments within the old school house building.
The converted cottage within the Lodge will have two dedicated parking spaces.
Seven further visitor spaces

Residents of Churchill communities tend to move to a sustainable location such as this in order to give up their car. It is also generally found that those who do initially have cars tend to give them up soon after moving into a lodge as they no longer need it given the sustainable town centre location and neighbourly living environment.

As retirement living is a very different operational use than residential or care home developments, Churchill has developed an evidence base across several existing Churchill developments. This concludes that Churchill’s existing sites typically have a parking demand of 0.28 spaces per apartment.

As such, the parking demand forecast for the 51 apartments proposed will be approximately 14.28 parking spaces. Churchill is proposing 17 parking spaces to cater for the 51 apartments, at a ratio of 0.33 spaces per apartment, which is likely to exceed the parking demand.

The development will also include 7x visitor spaces, meaning the site will have a total of 37 parking spaces.

Need for Retirement Living

The Census 2021 data shows that the population of Reading has increased by 11.9% since 2011 to 174,000 people and is the 4th most densely populated area in the South East. There has been an increase of 17.2% in people aged 65 years and over.

A Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) was undertaken in 2016 for Berkshire (including Reading). The SHMA stated the area was expected to see a notable increase in the older person population, with the total number of people aged 65 and over expected to increase by 73% over the 23 years from 2013; this compares with overall population growth of 17% and growth in the under 65 population of just 7%. The projected growth in the population aged 65 and over is higher than that projected for both the region and England as a whole.

The SHMA finds there were about 8,300 units of specialist housing for older persons in Berkshire. Based principally on the expected growth in population of older persons, the SHMA estimated a need for an additional 10,900 specialist dwellings for older persons over the 2013-36 period. The modelling showed an indicative split of specialist housing provision for older persons of 13% affordable, 87% market housing is recommended.

In Reading, the need equates to 1,189 specialist housing units for older people across the plan period.

Public consultation boards

Quality Design

The proposed redevelopment of the former Hemdean House School site offers an opportunity to significantly enhance the character of this part of Hemdean Road by replacing a vacant group of aging buildings with a high-quality residential scheme.

The surrounding area is characterised by traditional domestic-scale homes finished in red or buff brick and white render, with pitched roofs of red clay or grey concrete tile. Churchill has therefore developed a design approach that draws on these locally prevalent materials to ensure the new retirement homes and converted buildings sit comfortably within their setting.

The design incorporates a palette of red brick, lighter brick banding and detailing, white rendered elements and pitched tiled roofs, with the use of metal juliette balconies and considered window proportions to reflect the character of the surrounding residential streets. The scale of the new buildings has been carefully arranged to respect the topography and neighbouring homes, with the converted Nursery and School House retaining their established form while being sensitively adapted for modern residential use.

New planting and landscaping will be introduced throughout the site, with retained mature trees helping to soften views and reinforce the green, suburban character of Hemdean Road.

Proposed development facing Hemdean Road

Aerial view of the proposed site from Hemdean Road looking northwest

Design influences and materials

A strong record of delivery

Churchill have a strong track-record in delivering the sites on which they secure planning permissions and prides itself in delivering high quality developments that are robustly designed, costed and deliverable once planning permission has been obtained.

Two recently completed schemes in Fleet and Basingstoke demonstrate this dependability, and that we build what we get planning permission for and deliver on our promises.