Students bring economic activity to a struggling shopping development and vitality to the historic town centre. Having completed the first phase of this town centre new student accommodation scheme, with the redevelopment of the former Windsor House office building, we were asked to extend the scheme to add a further 248 bedrooms with a mix of studios and flats. Working with the historic fabric of the Queens Street frontage and listed buildings we have developed a courtyard scheme, which both retains the retail frontages whilst maximising the reuse of the upper storeys, combining these with several new student buildings.