Planning approval has been granted for the partial redevelopment of the Eastman Dental Hospital and former Royal Free Hospital and associated buildings in Camden, WC1.
The scheme by University College London will create 256,837 sq ft of space to provide a new outpatient facility and medical research and academic space.
In addition, the new facility will house the Dementia Research Institute and the UCL Institute of Neurology, which are being integrated.
The UK’s DRI is made up of six universities – University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, King’s College London and UCL.
It was decided to base the institute at UCL because of its location within a wider cluster of medical, educational and knowledge-based industries in Bloomsbury, King’s Cross and the surrounding areas, including the British Library, the Wellcome Trust and the Francis Crick Institute.
Prior to acquiring the site of the Eastman Dental Hospital, UCL had previously explored the creation of a new dementia and neurology research facility within its existing area of the Institute of Neurology on Queen’s Square, WC1, proposing two towers of 16 and 14 storeys, but following discussions with the Greater London Authority and Historic England these ideas were scrapped due to the harm to surrounding heritage assets and the small floorplates.
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