RIBA London Awards 2025 14.05.25

Last night, Tuesday 13 May, Soho Place and Tower Hamlets Town Hall both won RIBA London Awards, with Tower Hamlets Town Hall being named London Building of the Year.

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.

Judges commented “The scheme boldly reinvents the dilapidated and derelict Grade II listed former hospital buildings, satisfying the brief by overlaying it on the existing spaces and adding a substantial new extension. The approach is at once sensitive and brave, creating a modern, civic home for council administration, local services and democracy.”

Soho Place is a vast urban jigsaw that builds on the arrival of the Elizabeth Line to bolster the regeneration of Oxford Street. It comprises two mixed-use buildings framing a new civic plaza, Soho Place. The north building, 1 Soho Place, is a ten-storey, two tier building housing 33,000 sqft of retail space across three floors and 192,000 sqft of office accommodation across ten floors. The south building, 2 & 4 Soho Place, is a nine-storey building, the lower volume containing the first new-build West End theatre to open in 50 years, with 18,000 sqft of independent office space.

Both projects will now be considered for an RIBA National Award.