Weston Homes has begun the £60 million three year redevelopment programme to convert the 12-acre (4.9 hectare) Grade II listed Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, a collection of magnificent Victorian and Edwardian buildings, into a residential development providing 140 new private sale homes, converted and new build, set in landscaped grounds.
VKE Contractors Limited have been appointed by Weston Homes to undertake the substantial groundworks and restoration specialist SJB will be responsible for the delicate stripping out of the internals of the buildings, with considerable precision and efficiency required to preserve historic features.
The surveying and main contractor on the project will be Weston Group’s own in-house construction division, and the volume housebuilder’s Weston Logistics division will handle the scheme’s supply chain management, plant hire and the provision of off-site construction products and services.
Stansted Environment Services, another subsidiary of Weston Group, will provide health & safety consultancy, ground testing and sound testing during the construction works.
Weston Homes plan to launch and undertake sales for Cambridge Military Hospital in Autumn 2020, with a spectacular marketing suite and dressed show apartments created within the main Cambridge Military Hospital building, originally built in 1875-79 and based on design principles outlined by Florence Nightingale.
The hospital was opened on 18th July 1879, named after HRH Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, cousin of Queen Victoria, and injured war heroes from Britain’s key 20th Century conflicts were nursed back to health in the hospital’s wards including troops from the Boer War, the Battle of the Somme in WWI, the D-Day landings in WWII and the first Gulf War in 1990-1991. The hospital was closed in 1996 and in 2001 the Ministry of Defence announced that the buildings were surplus to military requirements.
Weston Homes acquired the Cambridge Military Hospital in May 2019 from the MoD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation and development partner Grainger plc.
With a masterplan devised by multi-award winning architectural practice Adam Urbanism, the converted Cambridge Military Hospital site will provide one, two and three-bedroom apartments and two, three and four-bedroom houses set in landscaped grounds.
The main Cambridge Military Hospital will be converted to provide 74 homes including apartments and houses, commercial/community facilities and grand communal foyers and spaces.
The construction work will reintroduce the elegant original elevations which will be enhanced with refurbished and new covered balconies. Between the building’s pavilion wings, Weston Homes will create private gardens and parking for residents. Inside, the spacious rooms, high ceilings (up to 15.5 ft high) and original features such as fireplaces, paneling and staircases will be retained and incorporated into the new homes.
The other historic hospital buildings will be converted to provide two and three bedroom apartments, alongside newly built apartments and houses. Around the restored heritage buildings there will be semi-private gardens and courtyards, open lawns and tree planting, creating a beautiful setting for the new residential development.
Aldershot is a thriving London commuter town just 33 miles (53km) southwest of the capital, benefitting from a commuter train time of just 43 minutes into London Waterloo.
Bob Weston, Chairman & Chief Executive of Weston Homes, says: “Weston Homes has started construction work on the conversion of the Cambridge Military Hospital into a new residential address for Aldershot.
