Mayor approves major life-sciences development at London Bridge

The Mayor of London has approved developer CIT’s application for a major life-sciences led, mixed-use development at Vinegar Yard.

Designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates in close collaboration with Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, it will be one of the first buildings within the BioMedical Hub on the London Bridge Campus and part of SC1, London’s new Life Science District.

Vinegar Yard is designed as a place for health and creativity with a total c.370,000 sq ft of commercial space for NHS clinical uses, offices and co-locating life science research companies.

The designs have a distinctive stepped profile, rising to 20 storeys (97.14m AOD). Its design is inspired by traditional warehouse architecture, whilst the low carbon façade of brick and terracotta is typical of the nearby conservation area.

The development represents a significant investment in placemaking. The ground floor is open, active and permeable with retail, lobby and public spaces that blur together to create a welcoming environment.

43 per cent of the site is given over to new public realm with a new urban garden at the east end of the site, trees along St Thomas Street in a generous setting and 13 green terraces at different levels throughout the building.

Vinegar Yard responds directly to the Climate Crisis. It will have a low carbon structure, be net zero carbon in operation and is designed for long life to meet Guy’s & St Thomas’ brief to be useful for at least three generations of flexible health or life science use. It will achieve BREEAM Excellent, targets WELL Building Gold standard and is an ‘Air Quality Positive’ scheme.

Connecting the benefits of the development with Bermondsey’s diverse community is a key principle of the development and central to its future success. It will create over 1,400 jobs and a partnership with GoodPeople will connect c.300 local people to employment and training opportunities through construction and operation.

Professor Richard C Trembath, Senior Vice-President Health and Life Sciences - King’s College London, Executive Director - King’s Health Partners, adds, “Vinegar Yard differs from a typical commercial development in a number of important ways.

“As a result, the technical specifications of the building means that it could be used by the Trust for outpatients, by KCL or tech firms for research, as Category 1 and 2 laboratories for industry or start-ups, or for aligned research activities.

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