Building London Planning Awards 2025 Finalists 21.05.25

Norton Folgate, Arthur Stanley House and Tower Hamlets Town Hall are all finalists in this year’s Building London Planning Awards in the Best Retrofit, Best New Place to Work and Best Borough-Led Project categories respectively.

Norton Folgate sits within the Elder Street Conservation Area and occupies a prominent position between the City of London and Shoreditch. Rather than applying a blanket strategy, the masterplan employs a building-by-building approach to the retained buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling and façade retention. The project provides for different office types and floor plate sizes, including work ready spaces, to attract a range of tenants from more established law and creative firms to tenants from the emerging TMT sector and local SMEs. Going beyond delivering commercial office space, the project also creates a network of spaces which give amenity and allow spatial choices for people to walk, meet, sit and experience this layered and rich part of London. New routes encourage links to the City and the emerging scheme at the Bishopsgate Goods Yard.

Located within the Charlotte Street Conservation Area, Arthur Stanley House reinvents a decaying 1960s block originally designed by TP Bennett Architects in Fitzrovia, London, to provide 10 floors of modern office accommodation and a new residential building. The new scheme, which retains more than 70% of the existing fabric, has refurbished the brickwork, added depth to the façade with generous stone reveals, and replaced the existing windows with new high quality triple glazing meeting modern standards while maintaining slim profiles typical of the Fitzrovia character. The design of Arthur Stanley House celebrates the original building alongside its 21st century additions and complements the conversation area. New and old are left exposed within the floorplates giving a uniqueness not normally found in commercial floor space.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building with the addition of a new build extension as the new home for London Borough of Tower Hamlets, consolidating several of the council's offices into one, more accessible location in Whitechapel. Responding to key eras of the existing building's development, between 1757 and 1906, the design utilises architectural characteristics inherent in each to enrich the new internal environment. The Georgian formality of the external facades has been retained, the restored brickwork creating a backdrop to the council's activities within the new extension. 

All finalist projects will be visited by the judges with the winners announced at the annual awards ceremony in October.