黑洞社区

Camden council has given the thumbs-up to a 拢1bn pharma centre in King鈥檚 Cross despite complaints from a campaign group that it does not contain enough laboratories.

Developer Precis Group鈥檚 10-storey building, which has been designed by architect AHMM, will be built on a site opposite St Pancras station if given the final sign off by the Greater London Authority.

The scheme, called the London Discovery Research Centre, will be the UK headquarters of global healthcare giant MSD.

But campaign group Save Bloomsbury has objected to the proposals, which have been billed as creating a 鈥渁 world-leading, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover new medicines to treat diseases鈥�, for only containing three floors of laboratory space.

According to the planning officer鈥檚 report, the building鈥檚 fourth floor will contain a 鈥渃ollaborative space,鈥� while floors 5-9 will house offices.

Despite the laboratory floors containing a much larger floor space than the upper levels, Save Bloomsbury campigner Owen Ward claimed the scheme is simply a 鈥�10-storey office block鈥�.

He added: 鈥淚t seems that the entire pandemic has skilfully been used as a ploy to both lock out community involvement and market a useless bulk as something necessary to both London and the world.鈥�

But Precis Group has hit back at the objections, claiming that the laboratories make up around 40% of the building鈥檚 total floorspace.

A spokesperson for the developer said: 鈥淲e can confirm that these will be operational and in use by the tenant MSD from day one with the main laboratory space facing on to the King鈥檚 Cross Square, giving passers-by sight of the activities inside and insight into the building鈥檚 low-carbon design.鈥�

The spokesperson added: 鈥淲e are also proposing associated office, research and 鈥榳rite-up鈥� space at levels four to nine.

鈥淚t is standard practice for buildings of this type to include a mix of laboratory and office space to allow for businesses focusing on life sciences to undertake their important work effectively.

鈥淭hese proposals meet the needs of MSD for their London Discovery Centre and UK headquarters to accommodate approximately 850 employees, of which around 150 would be laboratory-based research scientists.鈥�

It is understood that MSD, which is known as Merck outside Europe, is the only tenant of the building.

The site, which is currently occupied by a low-rise art deco building on Euston Road called Belgrove House, is within London鈥檚 鈥楰nowledge Quarter鈥� and close to the Francis Crick biomedical research institute built by Laing O鈥橰ourke and designed by PLP and HOK.

The local authority has also approved another Precis Group proposal, to replace the National Union of Journalists鈥� former headquarters Acorn House, a nearby 1960s office block on Gray鈥檚 Inn Road, with a nine-storey mixed-use block also designed by AHMM. It will contain 33 affordable homes and 500sq m of office space.