Student Village
Trinity College Student Village Development
Building a Kingdom-centred Community in the heart of Bristol.
“Living on site while I studied at Trinity gave me a wonderful experience of Christian community that radically influenced my life and ministry afterwards.”
So many Trinity students say that the best thing about studying here is living as part of a welcoming, Christ-centred, encouraging community. There’s a special feel to this place; an atmosphere and a Kingdom way of life that’s infectious. We want more future ministers and everybody who visits this place to experience it and take it with them when they go.
That’s why we’re planning new, flexible accommodation on site at Trinity College that will nurture this community for the next 50 years and beyond.
It’s not the same on Zoom!
Trinity life is about more than just lectures – it’s what goes on as we gather at the chapel each morning, share lunch together, or sit around a campfire after dark. There’s a rhythm to life here that forms a deep community.
This is why we welcome our ‘dispersed’ learners who live elsewhere to come and stay for block weeks on campus, rather than just taking a day trip.
The culture in the campus community sets the tone for everybody’s experience of Trinity College – whether they study here and live out in Bristol, or just visit as a conference guest. It’s worth investing in.
Flexibility for the future
At the moment, our on-site accommodation (the Carter block) is old, dormitory-style and only suitable for single students. We welcome students with spouses and children (we even have our own nursery!), but they currently only have the option to live off-site in one of our houses in Bristol.
There are benefits to this too, but we’d love to have the flexibility to accommodate couples and families on site in the future if they would like to join the resident community. Our new housing will have a flexible layout making it suitable for single students, guests, groups or families of all sizes.
Another thing we’ve been able to do is to offer our accommodation, when it’s standing empty, to people in need in the city. We’ve been working with local partners like Bristol Hospitality Network to house asylum seekers where we can, both off and on site, and have loved welcoming them into this special community.
There is a growing housing crisis in Bristol and our desire is not to buy up more properties to house our students in the city, but to build our own sustainable accommodation that we can share when we have opportunity.
The woodland village
The new student village will be a cluster of buildings surrounded by woodland, with shared spaces for the community to meet. It will be carefully and sympathetically designed so that it blends in with the woodland and trees, and doesn’t overshadow the historical Stoke House.
We want to use sustainable materials and ensure the new buildings are energy efficient and built to stand the test of time. Our goal is to work with local architects, builders and tradespeople, investing in our wider community.
Our aims align with the vision of Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community – to ‘build better communities and homes, not just houses’. Bristol City Council is also encouraging the building of sustainable, affordable new accommodation, and the project is enthusiastically supported by Bristol Housing Festival and local architects.