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Located on Upper Duke Street within Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter, this development delivers a 420-bed purpose-built student accommodation scheme for Fusion Students.
The Upper Duke Street development comprises a seven-storey, 420-bed student accommodation scheme for Fusion Students within Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter.
Located close to the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, the scheme introduces purpose-built accommodation within reach of the city’s education facilities and amenities.
The redevelopment brings a former vacant supermarket plot into a new use. Behind that opportunity, however, lay a complex history of previous occupation and ground disturbance, together with underground infrastructure that directly influenced the engineering approach.
The site has accommodated several different uses, including a graveyard and later housing. Its history also includes stone extraction associated with Liverpool Cathedral, adding another layer of complexity to the ground beneath the proposed development.
Two subterranean tunnels linking Liverpool’s docks with the city centre run below the site. These surviving structures connect the location with the city’s earlier infrastructure and presented an important constraint for the new building.
Understanding that history was essential to understanding the site itself. Earlier activity had implications for the ground conditions, potential archaeology and the position of existing structures beneath the development footprint.
Farrow Walsh was appointed to provide civil and structural engineering services, supporting the development of a coordinated and buildable design.
Our team commissioned detailed surveys to establish the precise location of the tunnels. This information was incorporated into the structural strategy from an early stage, helping inform the relationship between the proposed building and the infrastructure below.
The foundation design was developed to avoid imposing loads on the tunnels while supporting the seven-storey structure. Close coordination with the wider design team helped align the engineering proposals with the accommodation layout and the constraints identified through the site investigations.
The tunnels were a defining consideration for the foundation strategy. Their presence meant the building could not be designed solely around the requirements of the accommodation above ground.
Establishing their position gave the project team a clearer basis for assessing how the new structure could be supported. The foundation arrangement needed to account for the tunnels while providing an efficient solution for the scale of the proposed building.
Addressing this relationship early helped integrate a significant site constraint into the design process, informing decisions before the structural proposals progressed further.
The engineering strategy established an approach to supporting the proposed student accommodation while accounting for the tunnels beneath the site.
Farrow Walsh’s involvement demonstrates the importance of early investigation on developments where historic infrastructure influences what can be built above ground. Confirming the tunnels’ location allowed their presence to inform the foundation design and wider structural coordination.
The project illustrates how a detailed understanding of existing conditions can help unlock constrained urban land, supporting new accommodation while respecting the infrastructure and history beneath it.
