Belgrove House Breaks Ground 23.10.23

Last Tuesday morning (17 October) main contractors MACE officially broke ground at the Belgrove House site in Camden. A ceremony was held, attended by the client, Precis Advisory, Camden Councillors, key partners, and project team members. The group then relocated to Camden Town Hall for a discussion on how investment in science can help save and improve lives around the world. Faaiza A.Lalji, Director of Planning and Development at Precis Advisory, gave opening remarks followed by key remarks from Terry Spraggett, Managing Director - Public & Life Sciences at Mace; Dr Angela Kukula, CEO of Medcity; and closing remarks from Dean Y.Li, Executive Vice President and President of Merck Research Laboratories; and Ben Lucas, Managing Director at MSD UK. This was followed by a panel discussion which included AHMM’s Simon Allford; Darren McKerrecher, Executive Director and Head of Chemistry at MSD; Alex Neal, Partner at Gerald Eve; Jo Paisani, Board member at London & Partners; and was chaired by Robert Gordon Clark, Partner and Senior Advisor at London Communications Agency. The discussion centred on the importance of innovative buildings and investment in sustainable infrastructure, combining to bring facilities of global note to central London.

Located on Euston Road opposite King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, Belgrove House is a new-build specialised laboratory and office building for the life-sciences sector to be occupied by MSD as a London Discovery Centre and HQ. The scheme is designed to be innovative, highly sustainable and an example of carbon emissions reduction in construction, operation, and future refurbishment. The building’s configuration emerges from a clear arrangement of uses on the site. Life-sciences research laboratories are located on the largest floorplates at floors 1-3, providing animation to the facades and a public window into the research activity within, whilst offices will be located on floors 5-9 and the fourth floor will serve as a dedicated ‘collaboration hub’.