Cavell Street receives planning 13.03.25

On Wednesday 12 March Tower Hamlets Council approved proposals for a major new life sciences building adjacent to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, London.

Developed for Lateral, the new 10,200 square meter building on Cavell Street will provide market-leading, flexible lab space that aims to be an exemplar for London, with subdivisible, reconfigurable floorplates and generous ceiling heights that will cater for a range of tenants demands and ensure the buildings longevity.

Driven by a contextual response to the lower rise buildings of the Ford Square and Sidney Square Conservation Area and the emerging cluster of taller buildings immediately to the east and west of the site, the building is formed of two volumes, creating varied terraces providing external amenity to upper levels.

An enhanced public realm creates a new public connection through the site, increasing local permeability and linking the public highway on Cavell Street to the west with Red Lion Row the wider Silk District development to the east. This route will also serve as the main entrance to the building, the knowledge centre, and provides a visual connection to the incubator space putting science on display to local residents and visitors.

The project has high ambitions for sustainable design, health and well-being and low carbon design solutions. The building will target BREEAM Excellent and an EPC rating of A as well as significantly reducing embodied and operational carbon through the refinement of key building components.

The building will be occupied by Queen Mary University of London, Barts Life Sciences and Barts Health NHS Trust as the new Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre, delivering 40,000 square feet of flagship incubator space as part of the new Whitechapel Life Sciences District.