Work to restore the Guildhall is 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.

As custodian of this historic site, the council needs to invest in its upkeep, and plans to do so in a way that will generate income and reduce operational costs - while modernising the Guildhall to make it an accessible hub for local democracy, acting as the front door for residents accessing council services, while supporting our net zero target.

Latest update

• The planning applications related to the Guildhall were considered at Planning Committee on 25 March 2026 – find out more about the planning decision and next steps.
• A further decision on whether to proceed with the project will be taken during autumn 2026. Updated reports have been published ahead of Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 3 November. Following the discussion at Scrutiny Committee, the redevelopment will be discussed by Cabinet on 17 November, and then councillors will be making a decision at Full Council on 26 November 2026.
• The four options presented to the Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee make clear that councillors could decide:
  • to undertake a two-year refurbishment as proposed through the Civic Quarter project
    • either keeping the building, to be used for council purposes as well as leasing some of the building to commercial tenants
    • or leasing the whole building out to a commercial tenant
  • not to undertake refurbishment as proposed through the Civic Quarter project
    • either deferring any decision to be made instead by a new unitary council, while recognising that much of the building wouldn't be usable by the council in the interim
    • or trying to sell the Guildhall, while recognising that the sale of a building requiring significant investment wouldn't necessarily be straight forward

The proposals

The Guildhall is a Grade II listed building, with a number of issues which need to be addressed. These include:

• water ingress, with water damage affecting parts of the upper floors, including damage to ceilings, plaster finishes and parquet flooring, with concerns that ongoing water ingress could lead to further deterioration if not addressed
• deterioration of parts of the building fabric including the Council Chamber roof structure that will require remedial work 
• ageing building services
• concerns about areas of the external masonry, suggesting that façade repairs or measures such as netting may be required

Some of these issues are being monitored as part of regular building checks while parts of the building remain in use until the end of December 2026; other areas of the building are not currently in use. There are currently no plans to continue using the building from January 2027 onwards unless or until these issues are addressed or a new programme of monitoring is agreed.

In addition to addressing the issues above, the proposals for the Guildhall would see the building improved, operating at net zero carbon, reducing energy use and installing Air Source Heat Pumps and solar panels.

The ground floor would 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.