Firm to overhaul City fringe plot with favourite emerging on West End job

Derwent London has been appointed preferred bidder to buy the current Moorfields Eye Hospital site on the City fringe ahead of its move to new premises at St Pancras.

The developer is expected to submit a planning application later this year to Islington council for the plot which it described as 鈥渁n important strategic site located in the heart of the Tech Belt鈥�. Architect AHMM is understood to have been hired to draw up proposals for the 400,000 sq ft estate.

Moorfields is moving to an eye care, research and education centre in Camden鈥檚 Knowledge Quarter in the second half of 2026 called Oriel.

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Source: Shutterstock

Moorfields will move out of its historic site on City Road in the second half of 2026

Bidders include Mace and Bouygues with the design team including lead designer and project manager Aecom with lead architect Penoyre & Prasad.

Derwent鈥檚 deal with Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL includes the UCL鈥檚 Institute of Ophthalmology鈥檚 Bath Street site and the current Moorfields site at 162 City Road, where the hospital has been since 1899.

Proceeds from the sale, which have not been disclosed, will be ploughed into the new scheme at Camden, which has a price tag upwards of 拢250m for the new eye care building alone.

Meanwhile, Derwent is in final negotiations with a contractor for a mixed-use scheme on London鈥檚 Baker Street 鈥� with Laing O鈥橰ourke being tipped to have seen off remaining rival Sir Robert McAlpine.

The pair returned bids at the end of October for the job at 19-35 Baker Street, which is believed to be worth up to 拢150m.

McAlpine had been pushing hard for the job, having never worked for Derwent before.

derwent

Designed by Hopkins Architects, Derwent is planning for work at 19-35 Baker Street to be completed in 2025

But 黑洞社区 understands O鈥橰ourke, which is coming to the end of another Derwent scheme, the 拢195m Soho Place job at Tottenham Court Road, is now favourite for the job.

Work involves knocking down a series of existing buildings on Baker Street, George Street and Blandford Street.

They will be replaced with a mixed-use scheme of around 297,000 sq ft which will include 52,000 sq ft of residential and 28,000 sq ft of retail. Erith won the demolition deal last spring.

It has been designed by Hopkins Architects.

Other firms working on the job include QS Gardiner & Theobald, project manager Buro Four and structural consultant AKTII. Work is due to finish in 2025.

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