Room to Grow project

Goodenough College provides a home and stimulating community to outstanding postgraduate students from all around the world. The Room to Grow project was set up to provide support for a major renovation project. Work on renovating five  Grade II historic houses at 43-47 Mecklenburgh Square will be complete in September 2026, allowing the College to create space for a further 68 postgraduates to join its supportive residential community.

The College still needs further financial support to bring the project to fruition. You can help us to achieve this. Find out how to get involved.

Renewing five Georgian houses for future Members

Built between 1824-5, the houses are situated on the north side of Mecklenburgh Square, next to William Goodenough House (WGH) – one of the College’s two halls of residence. The houses are already integrated with William Goodenough House, with the back of the houses and the gardens overlooking current WGH accommodation.

The Room to Grow project supports the College’s work to convert the buildings in to high-quality student accommodation – improving the fabric of the buildings, increasing their life and respecting their important place in Bloomsbury’s literary and academic heritage.

The renovation project will allow the College to:

• Adjust the internal arrangement to offer improved accommodation – in doing this careful space planning will be exercised within the constraints of the existing listed buildings.
• Retain or repair existing heritage features, such as fireplaces, decorative cornicing, plaster mouldings and timber shutters to ensure the character of the listed buildings is preserved. Works will be approved through a listed buildings application.
• Increase the buildings’ energy efficiency by making thermal upgrades to each house – new glazing will be sensitively integrated into window frames and additional internal insulation added to external walls to improve energy efficiency.
• Provide all energy and hot water to the houses by a new Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) system, removing gas, reducing the carbon footprint of the houses and providing future resilience.
• Upgrade internal walls and floors to provide enhanced fire protection and acoustic comfort and bring the houses up to current regulatory standards.

To see more details of the project please download  the sample layout and floorplans.

Architect’s representations of the new rooms