A SHARED FAITH AND COMMUNITY SPACE FOR
connect,
celebrate,
pause,
belong
Who is it for?
Shaped by the community, for the community: for everyone who lives, works, studies, or wants to help put down roots in Northstowe. Years of listening and partnerships mean we are responding to clear gaps in local provision. Christian and Muslim communities will have space to worship with integrity, while the wider building will be open for education, wellbeing, civic, and community life that serves the whole town. Shared use will support collaboration over time, while respecting different needs.
What's the vision?
Set beside Bug Hunter Waters, our bid for the first of Northstowe’s four designated Faith and Community sites will bring together faith, education, wellbeing, and everyday community life in a series of connected indoor and outdoor spaces, creating the conditions for partnerships to deepen between community groups and for residents to put down roots.
- Some spaces are designed to support specific faith practices
- Many are shared, bookable, and open to the whole community
What's Planned?
The Chapel by the Lake
A permanent home for Christian worship across traditions; a beautiful venue for music, Northstowe weddings, baptisms, and funerals.The Islamic Prayer & Education Room
Developed by Northstowe Muslims, offering dignified, reliable space for Islamic prayer, learning, and youth mentoring while longer-term plans for an Islamic Centre progress.
Flexible Community Spaces
Bright, airy rooms for wellbeing activities, children and youth work, mentoring, therapy, and educational Alternative Provision, including smaller rooms suited to one-to-one and small group use, alongside wider faith or community activity.
Café and Exhibition Area
A relaxed, ground floor venue, overlooking the water, to meet, linger, and share stories, with space for community exhibitions and creative projects.
The Reflective Gardens
A series of outdoor spaces with different characters: a civic plaza and processional entrance, the Pilgrim Path with local artwork, and a Storytelling Circle, alongside quieter places to sit, pause, and reflect — open to passers-by, with areas bookable for events.
Figure 2 (Right/Bottom): A joyful wedding is celebrated in the first floor Chapel by the Lake, with views over Bug Hunter Water
Why it matters
Much of Northstowe’s faith, pastoral, and wellbeing support currently relies on temporary or borrowed spaces. But this site could provide a stable, accessible base for work already happening at smaller scale, strengthen partnership working, and complement existing civic provision, allowing this work to grow in step with the town.Who are we?
The Northstowe Church Network is a Local Ecumenical Partnership and registered charity (#1206577), rooted in the town since its earliest days. We work in partnership across Christian traditions and collaborate with schools, civic bodies, community organisations, and faith groups, including Northstowe Muslims, to support the shared life of the town.
Our charitable purposes unite two complementary objectives:
- To help Northstowe’s Christians worship and live out their faith, offering pastoral care and enabling them to contribute to the wellbeing of the whole town; and
- To develop an inclusive community centre for the benefit of all residents, regardless of background or belief.
In practice, this means we are both a faith community and a community development charity. Guided by our ethos of “praying, exploring, and sharing”, we nurture spiritual growth, strengthen relationships, and contribute to Northstowe’s flourishing through worship, education, youth work, wellbeing activities, and civic partnerships.
Key onsite collaborators:
www.northstowemuslims.org
contact@northstowemuslims.org
www.turtledovecambridge.com
hello@turtledovecambridge.com
Support us
If you would like to offer a letter of support, pledge funds, explore future use of the space, or talk about collaboration or future joint working, we’d love to talk!
You can use this form to pledge funds to the project, or express support. But remember, only opinions given through the official South Cambridgeshire District Council Public Consultation will influence the outcome of the bid.
Join our mailing list(s):
Sign up to our mailing list(s) to stay up to date on all that's happening. For those JUST interested in this specific project, please select "Shared Faith and Community Space Update".
Contact us
Church office:
Church House, 6 Woodpecker Close
Northstowe
CB24 1AW
01954 261181
hello@northstowe.church
Latest News
Bid Submitted for Northstowe Faith and Community Land
The Northstowe Church Network has now formally submitted its bid for the Phase 1 Faith and Community/Voluntary Land at Northstowe, marking a significant milestone in a process that has been more than a year in the making. The bid sets out a vision for a shared faith and community space by Bug Hunter Waters, rooted in long-standing local relationships and shaped by years of listening to residents and partners
At the heart of the proposal is close, ongoing collaboration with Northstowe Muslims and Turtle Dove Cambridge CIC, alongside a wider network of familiar Northstowe community groups. The Network’s plans also look ahead to future co-working, both on the site and across the town, with schools, youth organisations, wellbeing providers, arts groups, and other faith and voluntary groups. Expressions of interest from additional faith and community groups are warmly welcomed as these conversations continue.
The land, currently owned by Urban&Civic, is due to transfer to South Cambridgeshire District Council in Spring 2026. Following the close of the bidding window, council officers will assess all eligible submissions against published criteria. Summaries of the proposals and officer assessments will then be published, triggering a six-week public consultation period.
It is important to note that only comments submitted through the formal South Cambridgeshire District Council consultation process will count towards the “public consultation” element of the assessment. Informal feedback and messages of support are appreciated, but they do not contribute to the weighted scoring used by the council.
Further details about the consultation timetable and how to take part will be shared as soon as they are published by the council.read more...
South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Cabinet will review all the information before making a decision on awarding the land at their June 2026 meeting. Following this, consent for the disposal will be requested from the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. This is a process the Council must follow in this instance to offer a long lease on the land at a peppercorn rent.
Christian and Muslim Groups Work Together in Bid for Northstowe’s First Faith and Community Space
Plans include facilities for the whole town to use, alongside a new Chapel by the Lake and an Islamic Prayer Room, in a rare, inclusive design approach shaped by the community, for the community.
On 3rd December 2025, the Northstowe Church Network, working in collaboration with Northstowe Muslims, confirmed it will submit a bid to South Cambridgeshire District Council for the lease of the first piece of Faith and Community Land Northstowe. This is the first of four designated sites that will help shape the civic and spiritual life of the town. Rooted in seven years of neighbourhood-level listening and collaboration, the proposal aims to create an inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and genuinely community-shaped space serving residents of all backgrounds, including those with no religious beliefs.
Listening to Northstowe
Since the very beginning of Northstowe’s story, we’ve been listening. From the first Deckchair Listening Project events back in 2018 to this summer’s festivals, fayres, and creative pop-ups, hundreds of residents have shared what matters most to them — spaces that feel welcoming, beautiful, sustainable, and alive with community. Families, young people, faith groups, and neighbours have helped shape our vision not just for the Chapel by the Lake (a light-filled, nature-connected chapel) but also the surrounding flexible indoor and outdoor areas for wellbeing, creativity, and togetherness.
With ongoing conversations across our growing new town, interfaith collaboration, and professional design input, this truly is a Northstowe project — rooted in local hopes and shaped by shared imagination.
- Wow!
- Welcome
- Well Being
- Worship
- which of the four themes are important to you and why?
- what kind of activities, spaces, or support would make you feel more connected or at home in the town?
- If you could build just one thing into this site, what would it be?
- Is there anything else you'd like to say about the Chapel by the Lake or what Northstowe needs?
More Than Walls: Growing a Place to Belong
From the start, people have told us that what happens outside the walls is just as important as what happens inside. At the Northstowe Running Festival, our Deckchair Listening Project invited runners, families, and passers-by to add handprints and drawings to a giant “butterfly meadow,” sharing hopes for what could grow by the Lake. The ideas were beautiful and down-to-earth — wildflowers and herons, benches to rest on, "a place to be alone without being lonely", art and sculpture, and shady spaces to sit and chat. Together they painted a vision of outdoor areas that blend nature and creativity — places to breathe, play, reflect, and feel part of something bigger than ourselves.
