Blog · Building history

St John’s College and Turnstone secure pre-let at Maurice Wilkes building Cambridge

A dated report from 2017-01 documenting the Maurice Wilkes Building and its Cambridge setting.

Historical report. Dates, proposals and occupiers refer to the period described.

The report

St John’s College, together with its development manager, Turnstone Estates, has concluded the first pre-let of the prestigious Maurice Wilkes Building in Cambridge. The cyber security specialist, Darktrace, has signed a 15 year lease and will be occupying the top two floors of the building, plus roof terrace, when it completes in 2018.

The letting follows a move by the rapidly growing Darktrace to the St John’s Innovation Park in the autumn of 2016.

The Maurice Wilkes Building will be a distinctive and stylish headquarters building standing at the gateway to The St John’s Innovation Park and the wider business district on the northern fringe of Cambridge. It comprises circa 65,000 sq ft, arranged over five floors, plus an impressive reception and roof terrace.

Rob Sadler, Head of Savills Cambridge office, comments: “The Maurice Wilkes Building will set news standards in the Cambridge office market and we are delighted to secure such a prestigious pre-let. There are three floors comprising 44,632 sq ft still available, in which there is keen interest. We are on track to be on site in the early spring and will complete the building in June 2018.”

The building is located at the centre of the North Cambridge Research and Development Cluster. Connections will be further improved in 2017 with the arrival of the new railway station and extended guided busway serving the cluster.

Darktrace is a world leader in Enterprise Immune System technology for cyber security. It is powered by machine learning, developed by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge and is the only technology capable of detecting and responding to emerging cyber-threats, from within the network.

Savills and Carter Jonas advised St John’s College and Turnstone. Juniper Real Estate advised Darktrace.

Building context

Read this report as an account of its original period. For an overview of the completed place, see the building guide, or browse the development history to follow the sequence of events. Current property and visitor enquiries belong with the relevant organisation through the enquiry information.