A SHARED COMMUNITY AND FAITH SPACE FOR

connect,

celebrate,

pause,
belong

LATEST UPDATE: Northstowe Church Network welcomes decision on first Faith and Community Land site

We are delighted that South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Cabinet has agreed to progress the award of a 999-year lease to Northstowe Church Network for the first of Northstowe’s Faith and Community Land sites. This is a major step towards the Chapel by the Lake and a new lakeside faith and community hub: a place of prayer, hospitality, reflection, youth work, wellbeing, interfaith friendship, and shared community life. The full building project will take time and will be funded through charitable fundraising, grants, partner contributions, room hire and long-term planning, but we hope the first signs of life on the site can begin much sooner. We are extremely grateful to all who have helped shape this vision with us, and we look forward to continuing to work with neighbours, partners and local faith communities for the flourishing of Northstowe.

Jump to the latest news

The vision

Who is it for?
What’s the vision?
Why it matters?

Vision

Explore the site

Reflective Gardens
Café & community rooms
Chapel by the Lake
Islamic Room

Tour

The design

Architectural vision
Floor-by-floor plans
Hiring, sustainability and access

Design

Who’s involved?

Professional team
Collaborators
Listening to Northstowe

Team

Make a pledge

Pledge here

We are extremely thankful to everyone who has helped bring the Chapel by the Lake and wider lakeside faith and community hub to this point: those who have prayed, listened, encouraged, offered professional skills, served on working groups, given financially, and helped shape the vision. This has already been a shared effort, rooted in the life of Northstowe and carried by the generosity of many people.

Now, as we move forward, we are inviting those who share the vision to consider making a pledge towards the next stage of the project. Your pledge will help us plan responsibly, approach grant funders with confidence, and continue building towards this place of prayer, hospitality, reflection, youth work, wellbeing and shared community life for Northstowe.

The Vision

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 (including those of other faiths)

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.

A Guided Tour

As you arrive: the Reflective Gardens

As you arrive on the site, the first thing you encounter is the landscape.

Paths, sculpture, planting, and natural materials create a gentle transition from the surrounding neighbourhood into a space designed for gathering, reflection, and community life.

The gardens include a series of outdoor spaces with different characters: a civic plaza and processional entrance, the Pilgrim Path with local artwork, the Storytelling Circle, and quieter places to sit, pause, and reflect. The Storytelling Circle will host small gatherings, shared meals, scout groups, forest-style activities, and seasonal celebrations.

Above the Storytelling Circle, on the side of the building, space has been left to commission a landmark piece of local artwork.

For those simply passing through towards the nature reserve, it also offers a place to pause and enjoy the setting beside the lakes, while some areas could be booked for community events.

IMAGE: Meeting neighbours in the Storytelling Circle, surrounded by wildlife friendly planting: the main panel on the building will be developed into a landmark piece of local artwork.

Inside the building:

Café and Exhibition Area

A relaxed, ground floor venue overlooking the water where people can meet and linger.

The café will also host community exhibitions, creative projects, and informal gatherings, helping create a welcoming everyday meeting place for the town. It will operate as a social enterprise in its own right, creating opportunities for training, mentoring, and community participation.

We are exploring this vision in conversation with Turtle Dove Cambridge CIC, drawing on their experience in the hospitality industry, as well as supporting young people through mentoring, creative activity, and alternative education pathways.

Flexible Community Spaces

Bright, airy rooms for wellbeing activities, children and youth work, mentoring, therapy, and educational Alternative Provision.

These include smaller rooms suited to one-to-one conversations and small-group work, alongside medium-sized spaces for community activity and events.

We're already involved in conversation with many other local groups, including Romsey Mill (charity working in Northstowe and elsewhere in South Cambridgeshire to support young people and families), Northstowe Youth Hive, Northstowe Scouts, RAF Air Cadets (2524 Oakington Squadron), The Pathfinder Primary School, Plastic Free Northstowe and Longstanton, Bug Hunter Waters Park Run and Northstowe Arts, who have all supplied letters of support for this proposal.

The Chapel by the Lake

At the heart of the building sits the Chapel by the Lake: a double-height space seating around 80 people, with views across the lake and a sense of quiet separation from the activity below. The chapel provides a permanent home for Christian worship in Northstowe, developed by the Northstowe Church Network, a partnership bringing together Christians from several traditions who already live and serve in the town.

The chapel acts as the hub of the Network’s worship, while many other activities and gatherings continue to take place across Northstowe in schools, homes, and community venues.

Local residents have shared a need for dignified spaces for midweek prayer and worship, as well as for weddings, baptisms, and funerals, which currently often require travelling to neighbouring towns and villages.

Additional flexible space is provided through the annex and mezzanine, which can open onto the chapel for larger gatherings. These spaces can also be used or hired separately for other Christian activities, music rehearsals, meetings, or non-religious community use.

The setting and acoustics of the space will make it a beautiful venue for Northstowe weddings and music performances, alongside its regular role in worship and quiet prayer.

During the day, outside organised events, it would be open for those walking through the site who wish to step inside for a moment of stillness.

The Islamic Prayer & Education Room

A longstanding local relationship between Northstowe Church Network and Northstowe Muslims, built through collaboration in schools, community events, and civic life, has helped shape a vision for collaborative working on this site, and for continued joint working in the future should further S106 opportunities enable the Muslim community to explore a dedicated Islamic Centre.

At this stage of the town’s development, local Muslim residents have shared a clear need for a small, qibla-aligned, prayer space within walking distance of their homes, enabling them to fulfil everyday religious obligations and gather for learning, mentoring, and pastoral support.

The room itself is intentionally modest in scale, designed primarily for daily prayer and small gatherings. When larger community events are needed, Northstowe Muslims would be able to hire other rooms within the centre, just as other local groups do.

While the room provides a practical place for prayer, the co-location within a shared community building is also intentional, creating opportunities for greater cultural and interfaith understanding and for collaboration on joint community and social action projects.

Explore the Design

The Architectural Vision

The lead architect describes the rationale of the form as follows:

“This proposed faith centre reimagines sacred space by compressing its physical footprint to minimize environmental impact on the site and operational resources. Where possible, it remains transparent to invite light and openness. Rising over the adjacent roofs, its presence invites interaction. The views from inside the building and the rooftop over Northstowe and the surrounding countryside reinforce the sense of space and belonging.

Moving away from heavy, traditional construction, the structure should feel 'grown' and 'assembled'. Ultimately, the faith centre should provide a support frame that facilitates the establishment and long-term growth of the local community, serving as a functional hub for both spiritual practice and social connection.

As a building of faith, it aspires to be grand, inspiring, hopeful, but also inviting, approachable and relatable, a cornerstone for the community, both visually and socially. It is the link between our everyday experience and who we can become. We are aiming for a building typology and vocabulary of a bolder and a more radical approach, that is driven by community needs, a design that comes from manifesting spatial ambition and hope, fresh, innovative, exciting and inspiring.”

Designed for neighbourhood-scale gatherings

The centre has a compact footprint, while providing a mix of worship, community, and meeting spaces arranged vertically within the building. It offers around 685 m² of All Access Area floorspace space arranged across multiple floors to allow several activities to take place at the same time, with clear safeguarding boundaries between spaces. Toilet cubicles are provided on every floor.

A Floor by Floor Overview

Ground Floor
Café and exhibition space overlooking the lake, with two small bookable meeting pods and a Changing Places toilet.

First Floor
The double-height Chapel by the Lake (seating around 80) with a flexible annex.

Second Floor
1.5 height Chapel mezzanine for small groups, plus the Network office.

Third Floor
Community hall, small meeting room, and the Islamic Prayer & Education Room.

Rooftop Terrace
Outdoor gathering space with views across the lake.

Practical Questions

+ Hiring and Community Use

Many of the shared spaces within the Centre will be available for hire when they are not in use by the Northstowe Church Network , Northstowe Muslims, or Turtledove.

These spaces will be open to local residents, community groups, charities, faith groups, and organisations, supporting activities such as community meetings, classes, youth work, cultural events, workshops, and wellbeing sessions.

The building has been designed primarily to serve the everyday needs of people living within walking or cycling distance of the site. Rooms are therefore modest in scale, suited to neighbourhood activities rather than large regional gatherings. The limited parking provision and strong emphasis on active travel reflect this local focus.

Rooms will generally be available during weekdays and Saturdays from mid-morning through to early evening, with some evening availability depending on the space and safeguarding arrangements. The building has been designed with multiple floors and separate zones, allowing different groups to use the centre at the same time.

Hiring income forms part of the centre’s long-term sustainability plan, alongside café income and events. Pricing has been modelled using a three-tier structure:

commercial rates
standard local group or personal hire
discounted rates for charities delivering local community benefit.

This approach allows the building to remain affordable for local groups while helping meet the ongoing running costs of the centre.

+ Sustainability, Active Travel and Local Access

Northstowe has been designed as a walkable and cycle-friendly town, and this proposal builds on that approach.

Northstowe Church Network has been awarded Silver Eco Church, recognising its commitment to caring for creation and reducing environmental impact. The development of the Centre forms part of the Network’s journey towards Eco Church Gold, with the project designed to support the transition towards low-energy, net-zero carbon buildings, alongside biodiversity-enhancing landscape design and responsible use of resources. Further detail can be found in the Network’s Environmental Policy.

Both the Northstowe Church Network and Northstowe Muslims have already demonstrated through their activities in the town that gatherings of the scale suited to this site do not create parking pressures. Most participants travel on foot or by bicycle, reflecting the highly local nature of both communities.

The proposal includes 16 parking spaces, extensive cycle parking, and an active travel plan, encouraging walking, cycling and shared transport in line with Northstowe’s low-carbon neighbourhood vision.

Where is the site?

Where are regular users coming from?

Through its activities the Northstowe Church Network serves more than 500 local residents who participate weekly across its worshipping communities, toddler groups, youth work and schools engagement, with additional participation at civic events, the majority being Northstowe residents and a minority travelling from a wider catchment of up to seven miles (pictured).

Northstowe Muslims primarily serve Muslim households living in Northstowe, with around 40 established households based in the town and a further 40+ from the same immediately surrounding villages

Map shows the local reach of the core communities involved, illustrating that the majority of participants live within walking or cycling distance of the site, based on a travel survey of Northstowe Muslims and Northstowe Church Network in 2025

Who is making this happen?

The Professional Team

Architecture • Landscape • Engineering • Cost & Construction • Communications • Strategy

The design of the Centre has been developed with the support of Archangel Architects ; Allen Pyke Associates (landscape architects); Millcam Ltd (construction and cost consultants); Stantec (civil engineers advising on drainage, active-travel infrastructure and environmental integration); Lo Marketing (communications specialists supporting branding and public engagement through consultation and delivery phases); and the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants (providing strategic consultancy in financial modelling, risk management and governance).

Who are we: the Northstowe Church Network

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 on-site Collaborators:

Northstowe Muslims are a formal collaborating organisation and will be anchor tenants within the proposed development. They are a registered UK charity (#1203216) rooted in Northstowe, founded by local residents from diverse professional, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. The organisation supports the social and spiritual needs of Muslim families while working in partnership with schools, civic bodies, and faith groups. Their involvement will enable a dedicated Islamic prayer and education room alongside shared community spaces, supporting youth mentoring, wellbeing activities, community events, and ongoing interfaith collaboration open to people of all faiths or none.

www.northstowemuslims.org

contact@northstowemuslims.org

Turtle Dove Cambridge are a collaborating organisation working with us to explore the best way to deliver Alternative Provision and Young Women’s Development Work on site. They are a registered Community Interest Company (#08542595) supporting young women aged 14–24 who are at risk of disengagement from education, employment, or training by providing structured, confidence - building work experience in a safe, female-only environment. Through practical, work like environments in hospitality, events and catering, participants develop employability skills, confidence, and readiness for progression into education, training, or work, helping to address a recognised gap in youth provision in Northstowe.

www.turtledovecambridge.com

hello@turtledovecambridge.com

Other Collaborators

Our bid submission also records numerous other working relationships with local groups, schools, organisations, and faith communities across Northstowe and the surrounding area.

We have also been involved in the Northstowe Faith Strategy Group since its inception, listening carefully to the needs and perspectives of those who have chosen to participate.

The conversation is ongoing! Get in touch if you want to find out more

Shaped by Listening

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.

On our display at the Midsummer Festival we explore four themes:

Wow! * Welcome * Wellbeing * Worship

as we asked:

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.

Support the Project

If you would like to pledge funds, explore future use of the space, or talk about collaboration or future joint working, we’d love to talk!

Pledge Funds

Latest News

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse