We are planning to create a new student accommodation building on Plot A, which will also include commercial / business space at the lower floors. Plot A is located at the corner of Wood Lane and Shinfield Street. It is the last building in the part of the White City Campus that is north of the Westway (A40).

Plot A had previously been identified as the location for new academic offices and support facilities, but this will now instead form part of the White City Campus south site on the other side of the Westway (A40).

Following public consultation in the summer and autumn, we have now submitted a planning application to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF). The proposals are available to view on LBHF's Planning Portal under the reference 2022/03492/FUL and the plans shared as part of the public consultation can be viewed online (Plot A consultation panels).

Since we submitted the planning application, new building guidelines have been proposed in the UK which have necessitated minor revisions to the planning application. The new rules, proposed by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, mandate second staircases in some new residential buildings. As our original plans included a single staircase design, we have altered our proposal to bring it in line with these new guidelines. 

To do this, we revisited the plans and have created greater efficiency in the building’s layout to allow space for an additional staircase. There is no change to the height and massing of the building.

Through this redesign, we have also made a small increase to the number of student accommodation rooms provided in the building – from 212 to 216. Crucially, this increase means that 35 per cent of the rooms will be let at deeply discounted rents to Imperial students to support the brightest and best students to study, regardless of their financial background. These revisions have now been submitted to the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham as an update to the existing planning application.

We will continue to keep the community updated about the proposals. If you have any questions in the meantime, you can contact our team at imperialwhitecityplanning@camargue.uk.

Background

Outline and detailed plans at White City North were previously approved by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.  Most of the buildings in the northern part of the campus are now complete and in use, with the exception of the School of Public Health which is currently under construction next to Plot A on Wood Lane.  Further work is also being carried out to improve the site’s infrastructure and landscaping.

The White City Campus includes I-HUB, the Molecular Sciences Research Hub and the Sir Michael Uren Hub, as well as homes including student accommodation at GradPad and homes for Imperial key workers at Eighty Eight Wood Lane.

South of the Westway (A40) is our dedicated community space, The Invention Rooms, where the College’s community engagement team run education, skills and employment-based initiatives for local residents of all ages and backgrounds – making critical contributions to building knowledge and capacity in STEM within the community.  The south site also includes a new innovation space for scale-up businesses, Scale Space.

The whole campus forms part of the emerging White City Innovation District, bringing diverse people and skills together to create a global economic and cultural hotspot.