Boasting the fifth largest student population in the UK full time students currently number just under 55,000 in Leeds, having experience a 45% increase since 2000/01, helping to make it a vibrant, cultural urban hub, while contributing significantly to the local economy.  University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University account for 91% of all full time students in the city.

Despite the economic benefits and the boost to Leeds’s skills base that students bring, they also put major pressure on housing in the city.

Despite the current development pipeline of new accommodation coming online there remains strong demand for good quality purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in Leeds.  PBSA helps to relieve this and areas where student accommodation concentration as high, as well as satisfy the demand for high-quality, convenient places to live from the students themselves.

Located on Whitelock Street to the north of Leeds city centre, Alumno has completed this scheme. We worked with architects Howarth Litchfield to demolish a number of vacant buildings on the site to provide student accommodation with ground floor commercial of an Asian Street food restaurant.

The site is extremely well located for access to higher education institutions in Leeds being under 30 minutes’ walk (and 15 minutes cycle) from the University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University (City Campus), Leeds Arts University, Leeds College of Music, Leeds City College, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and The Leeds College of Building (North Campus).

The contractor GMI completed the scheme ready for the Autumn term 2023. Artwork in the atrium honours the late artist Sir Terry Frost who taught in Leeds, there are other works commissioned by Alumno from the ceramic artist Amelia Frances Wood and the poet Zaffar Kunial via art consultant Matthew Jarratt.