Creative Places
Creative Places is a UK specialist R&D real estate advisory firm (trading name of Bidwells LLP) that helps universities, NHS trusts, life sciences investors, and occupiers plan, develop, and let laboratory and innovation properties across the Golden Triangle.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersCambridge, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Creative Places does
Creative Places is a UK-based specialist real estate advisory firm focused exclusively on the research, development, and innovation property sector. Founded in 2009 by Jonathan Burroughs and John Sommerville and now operating as a trading name of Bidwells LLP, the firm is headquartered at 3 King's Parade, Cambridge — at the heart of what it describes as Europe's most prolific hi-tech cluster. The firm serves a defined set of institutional clients: universities and academic institutions (it claims work for 7 of the UK's top 10 universities), R&D real estate investors and developers (British Land, Oxford Properties, Kadans Science Partners), NHS hospital trusts and biomedical campuses (Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Babraham Research Campus), and corporate occupiers such as AstraZeneca, on whose relocation to Cambridge Creative Places claims to have played a key role. The firm reports involvement in 70% of major UK hospital-proximate R&D projects and is helping clients deploy over £0.5bn into life sciences real estate.
The firm's core offerings split into two service lines: Consultancy Services (strategic advice on R&D property development, campus masterplanning, investment appraisal, and demand studies) and Agency Services (specialist letting and tenant representation for laboratory and R&D properties, alongside a public online property search portal listing available lab space in Cambridge, London and surrounding areas). All revenue is professional services fees billed on a project or mandate basis with no publicly disclosed pricing. Distribution is sales-led, primarily through direct enterprise engagement, supplemented by thought-leadership content, conference speaking, and industry awards (UKSPA, Estates Gazette Specialist Advisor of the Year). The team is small (1-10 employees) and the firm is regulated by RICS, with a leadership team led by CEO Liam Nicholls and Managing Partner John Sommerville following the 2024 retirement of co-founder Burroughs.
Creative Places firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Creative Places
- Legal name
- Creative Places, a trading name of Bidwells LLP
- Website
- https://creativeplaces.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Creative Places is a UK specialist R&D real estate advisory firm (trading name of Bidwells LLP) that helps universities, NHS trusts, life sciences investors, and occupiers plan, develop, and let laboratory and innovation properties across the Golden Triangle.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Creative Places industry classification
Industry- Product category
- R&D Real Estate Advisory Services
- SIC
- Real Estate Agents & Managers (For Others) (6531)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Flex / R&D Industrial Space Brokerage (BPAJACAC)
Keywords
Where Creative Places is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Cambridge
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Creative Places business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Advisory and Consultancy Fees: Professional services fees for strategic advice on R&D property developments, planning, masterplanning, and real estate delivery for research-intensive businesses.
- Agency and Letting Fees: Specialist agency services for letting laboratory and R&D properties, working with property owners and occupiers.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels3 records
Creative Places product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Creative Places is a specialist R&D real estate advisory firm that helps clients plan, create, manage and invest in collaborative places for research, R&D, education, creative industries and innovation. It provides agency services for laboratory and R&D property lettings, strategic consultancy on property development and investment, and an online property search portal for available laboratory and R&D spaces in Cambridge, London and the surrounding areas.
Product overview
Creative Places offers a unified service combining specialist agency and consultancy capabilities for R&D real estate. The Agency Services provides property letting and tenant representation for laboratory and research spaces, while Consultancy Services delivers strategic advice on property development and investment. The Property Search portal serves as the client-facing listing service showcasing available properties. The company operates as a trading name of Bidwells LLP and is regulated by RICS.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Agency Services
- Consultancy Services
- Property Search
Quantifiable outcome
- Worked for 7 out of UK top 10 Universities
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Creative Places
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Creative Places technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Creative Places partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Bidwells LLPcoreCreative Places is a trading name of Bidwells LLP. The firm operates as a specialized division within the Bidwells group, maintaining the Creative Places brand for R&D property advisory services.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Creative Places competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Bidwells LLP: Parent partnership of Creative Places and a broader UK real estate advisory firm covering science and innovation real estate, rural, commercial and residential sectors. Directly comparable because Creative Places is a trading name within the Bidwells group and the two operate overlapping client relationships in the Cambridge science cluster.
- Montagu Evans: UK-based commercial property consultancy with a development and planning practice advising on major regeneration, science and innovation districts. Comparable because both firms operate as UK specialist advisors to developers, universities and public bodies on complex real estate schemes, including science and innovation campuses.
- Gerald Eve: Independent UK commercial real estate advisory firm with investment, development and occupier services across UK office, science and innovation assets. Comparable as a mid-sized UK specialist competing for university, investor and developer mandates in the R&D and innovation real estate market.
Broad incumbents
- Savills: Global real estate advisory firm with a UK presence and an active UK life sciences / laboratory agency practice. Comparable as a diversified commercial real estate advisor competing for the same universities, investors and occupiers that Creative Places serves, but at materially greater scale and with a much broader service portfolio.
- Knight Frank: Global real estate consultancy with established UK life sciences advisory and capital markets capability. Relevant peer because Knight Frank competes for the same institutional investors, developers and occupier mandates in the UK R&D property market, albeit as part of a much wider commercial real estate platform.
- CBRE: World's largest commercial real estate services firm with a dedicated Life Sciences practice covering valuation, advisory and capital markets in the UK. Comparable as a global incumbent pursuing the same university, NHS trust and investor mandates in the UK laboratory real estate market as Creative Places.
- JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle): Global real estate services firm with a UK Life Sciences capital markets and advisory practice. Overlaps with Creative Places on occupier representation, investment advisory and developer mandates across the Golden Triangle and emerging UK life sciences clusters.
- Cushman & Wakefield: Global commercial real estate services firm with a UK Life Sciences platform spanning agency, valuation and capital markets. A broad incumbent peer competing for many of the same institutional mandates in UK R&D and laboratory property.
- Colliers: Global commercial real estate services firm with a UK team active in life sciences, life sciences capital markets and occupier services. Comparable as a diversified advisor pursuing institutional investors, developers and occupiers in UK R&D real estate.
Others
- AECOM: Global infrastructure and advisory consultancy with a real estate consulting practice advising on masterplanning, development economics and workplace strategy for campuses and innovation districts. Comparable at the strategic advisory layer where Creative Places' consultancy services overlap with AECOM's real estate advisory offerings to universities, developers and public bodies.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Creative Places social profiles
Digital presenceCreative Places compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Creative Places financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Creative Places leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Creative Places funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Creative Places M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Creative Places
What does Creative Places do?
Creative Places is a specialist R&D real estate advisory firm that helps clients plan, create, manage and invest in collaborative places for research, R&D, education, creative industries and innovation. It provides agency services for laboratory and R&D property lettings, strategic consultancy on property development and investment, and an online property search portal for available laboratory and R&D spaces in Cambridge, London and the surrounding areas.
Is Creative Places a public or private company?
Creative Places is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Creative Places founded?
Creative Places was founded in 2009. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Creative Places based?
Creative Places is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Creative Places make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Advisory and Consultancy Fees are the primary driver. The others are agency and Letting Fees.
Who are Creative Places's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Bidwells LLP, Montagu Evans and Gerald Eve. Broad incumbents are Savills, Knight Frank, CBRE, JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle), Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers. AECOM is listed as an others.
Does Creative Places have an API?
No public API is recorded for Creative Places.
What industry is Creative Places in?
Creative Places's product category is R&D Real Estate Advisory Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAJACAC, Flex / R&D Industrial Space Brokerage. Its SIC code is 6531.