The rowdy Friday night crowds at Chickandos in Nottingham are a testament to the way the UK’s higher education boom has transformed many of its city centres. Students are the main clientele at the chicken and pizza takeaway, and it is almost completely surrounded by student housing.
More flats are on the way, as a crumbling Art Deco building across the road is converted into a 600-bed complex. But that project may be one of the last in the English Midlands’ city, amid signs that a surge in purpose-built student accommodation could be coming to an end.
“For about a 20-year period, you’ve seen phenomenal numbers of purpose-built student rooms being built . . . it spawned a huge industry in some places,” says Martin Blakey, the former head of student housing charity Unipol.