University of London Decarbonisation project receives planning 11.06.25

Camden Council has given Listed Building Consent for the addition of two plant enclosures to the roof of Sir Denys Lasdun’s Grade II* listed Institute of Education (IoE) building at 20 Bedford Way.

Developed for the University of London (UoL), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and University College London (UCL), known collectively as The Bloomsbury Heat and Power Consortium, the project is central to the Consortium’s initiative to decarbonise its southern campus.

The Consortium’s buildings are currently supplied by 20-year-old gas CHP engines, 50-year-old gas and oil-fired boilers and distribution pipework – some of which are over 80 years old. The primary driver of the project is to upgrade, enhance and extend the Consortium’s decarbonisation initiative through replacing the life-expired gas and oil-fired heat generation plant, to deliver a highly flexible and efficient low carbon scheme capable of delivering significant fuel cost and carbon savings to its customers through real time optimisation of system performance.

AHMM’s brief was to create two plant enclosures for IoE’s roof which would sit comfortably within the architecture of the Grade II* listed building. The enclosure will minimise the visibility of sixteen chillers and four compressors plus transformer and switch rooms distributed along the two central roof areas of the building, from street level.

The primary goal of the proposed upgrade is to significantly decarbonise the university’s heating, with the eventual aim of complete decarbonisation of the UoL’s southern campus within the next decade, enabling consortium members and the broader estate to meet their Net Zero Carbon targets.