Scientific serendipidity Cambridge Science Park is 40 this year, but there has been no overarching plan. Nadia Elghamry looks at the enterprise’s history
As Concorde was making its maiden supersonic flight across the Atlantic, Cambridge dons were looking at other ways of bringing the US closer to the UK. It was 1970, and Conservative Edward Heath had just become prime minister, Catch–22 was on cinema screens and The Beatles had called it a day; in Cambridge, Trinity College was enviously eyeing the progress of science parks in the US with a plan of creating its own Cambridge Science Park on land it owned to the north of the city.
John Tweddle, now equity partner at Bidwells, was there that first day, 40 years ago, and remembers the idea being floated. “It had succeeded in the States, but we started in a modest way because we were concerned it wouldn’t work,” he says. “When we built the first building, the tenant originally wanted 5,000 sq ft, but it ended up doubling the size. We thought that, if they didn’t move into it, it could be turned into a nice warehouse.”
Four decades later, you would be laughed out of Silicon Fen for suggesting the Cambridge Science Park might make a good shed. Trinity College’s flagship development enters middle age this year, having seen rents multiply to 25 times their initial level, and the city become one of the top hi-tech clusters in Europe.
But the park’s progress has been far from plain sailing. It has seen dot.com become dot.gone, survived a spat over neighbouring land with Trinity Hall and suffered more than a few property crashes (see timeline).
Today, though, it is home to 1.65m sq ft of property, housing over 100 companies, mostly in the ownership of Trinity College. In fact, more than half the buildings on the park have been constructed by Trinity College, one-quarter by occupiers with leases, while 20% are owned by investors with long leases. Back in 1970, however, there was no grand plan.
“The college built a building and, if someone else came along, they’d build a second building,” says Tweddle. “The park has always been occupier focused and that hasn’t changed dramatically.”
The same went for planning. In contrast to today’s attention to masterplanning and endless consultations, Tweddle explains that initially Trinity College built a road straight off Milton Road. “We simply turned that road left and built a building, with no real idea of where that road would go. We never spent vast amounts of money on the infrastructure,” he says.
In 1973, Laser-Scan became the first company on the park, paying the grand sum of £0.95 per sq ft, which Tweddle describes as “fairly expensive at the time”.
That building is still there, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by Cambridge’s property players. “You can walk through the park and see by the architectural style exactly when things were built,” says Jamie Green, director at Juniper Real Estate, who worked for the park for eight years in his position as partner at Bidwells.
“There’s a 1970s building at the front, and then there’s the ’80s one with plastic window frames, and a ’90s brick building, before you start getting the glass and chrome,” Green adds. “They always said they’d get around to redeveloping those buildings, it was always on the agenda, but they paid for themselves many times over.”
Tweddle is frank about the architecture. “Those plastic windows,” he says, casting his eyes skyward. “It is an awful building, but it has been a great success.” Pointing to the first building on the park, he says: “It probably cost £10 per sq ft and it has lasted remarkably well. It has been changed, and knocked around and recreated.”
Occupier restrictions
Only science occupiers are allowed on the park, but Tweddle says that CSP has never asked the council if a specific occupier is permitted. He adds, with a smile: “In times of recession, the perception of what is a science company might have been slightly widened, but any dubious occupiers have long since gone.”
With many buildings having had more than one occupier – from those making machines for life sciences at the beginning, through software, hardware and now biotech – many have questioned why Trinity College did not take the decision to build speculatively during the good times.
“We wanted to remain well disciplined,” says Tweddle, “and sometimes speculative development looks like a very attractive game – and sometimes it doesn’t.”
The dot.com crash of early 2000 remains one of those times when the college ended up with empty buildings on its hands. “It felt like scary times,” says Tweddle. “We had speculative space which came by accident. Often, there were young companies that were roaring ahead – and then they’d gone to the wall.”
Yet, even in 2000, when growth had returned, Trinity College had already realised that it would need to expand the park. However, neighbouring land owned by Trinity Hall was not the ideal answer. As one Cambridge agent says: “The rivalry between the two stretches back centuries. There was nowhere else for the science park to go, and I’m not sure how well the agents representing each of the parties got along with each other.”
Trinity Hall owned 22 acres of land that Trinity College desperately needed. There was only one entrance to the science park, which became incredibly congested during the rush hour. The extra land owned by Trinity Hall would allow a second access.
“It wasn’t terribly easy,” admits Tweddle, “but, once we stopped posturing and got down to the basics, we ended up with a very simple agreement. The market was strong, and Trinity Hall did very well.”
So what will be the grand plan to see the park through its next 40 years? Tweddle says: “There never has been a grand plan or any grand design. It has always been hand to mouth.”
Timeline
1970 Trinity College sanctions the development of Cambridge Science Park
1971 Outline planning permission granted for 14 acres at CSP
1973 CSP’s first company, Laser-Scan, moves onto the site as the UK plunges into recession
1978 Herman Maria Hauser sets up Acorn Computers in Cambridge
1981 Completion of the Napp building at CSP
1985 Influential report The Cambridge phenomenon forecasts explosive growth in hi-tech companies
1990 John Major becomes PM and house prices crash as UK enters recession again
Authors of The Cambridge phenomenon say the city’s approach to hi-tech development lacks coherence
1992 Environment secretary Michael Heseltine rejects proposals for a new settlement at Great Common Farm, including a science park of “similar proportion and prestige to Cambridge Science Park”
1995 Hi-tech stocks start to soar as dot.com bubble appears
1996 Suon announces plans to build a £100m research park on the former Landbeach Marina, to compete directly with Cambridge Science Park
1996 University of Cambridge unveils draft plan for a £300m science centre on the outskirts of the city
1997 Tony Blair becomes PM; Granta Park is launched with business manager MEPC saying it will spend £45m developing it
1998 DevSec wins contest to develop Cambourne Business Park at the same time as telecoms giant Ionica goes into administration, releasing 100,000 sq ft into Cambridge market
1999 Deputy PM John Prescott turns down plans for a 440,000 sq ft science park at Hinxton Hall in Cambridge
2000 Trinity College and Cambridge College jv develops 22 acres in CSP phase 6
Nasdaq peaks and the dot.com bubble bursts; Slough Estates announces acquisition of Cambridge Research Park, with plans to develop hi-tech cluster
Morley Fund Management presses ahead with £100m research and development centre at Chesterford Park, Cambridge
2001 Gallagher Estates unveils Oakington Barracks Science Park, Longstanton, linked to CSP by a superCAM rapid-transit system
2002 Trinity College and Gallagher Estates announce intention to develop R&D annexe at new settlement Oakington Barracks, with “half as much space again as CSP”
2005 CSP opens the Innovation Centre for start-up companies
2008 Hermes’ and Exemplar’s Building 101 at CSP is completed, and sits empty. It threatens to live up to its Orwellian name
Science parks today
Source: Carter Jonas, Bidwells, Estates Gazette
