330 Gray’s Inn Road

The project team would like to thank those of you who have provided feedback and comments on the designs for the redevelopment of 330 Gray’s Inn Road. Over the last 11 months, the team has been working hard to engage with the community, key local groups and political stakeholders, to develop proposals that would benefit existing residents and support the wider growth of the lower King’s Cross area.

Groveworld, the developer of 330 Gray’s Inn Road, is overseeing the proposals of the now vacant hospital site. They have extensive experience working on complicated and restricted sites, having led on the masterplanning for the City Road Basin. This project transformed a formerly inward looking and inaccessible part of Islington. Three mixed use developments, including the award-winning Canaletto Tower, have been delivered here alongside new affordable homes, public realm and pedestrian routes.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) are RIBA Stirling Prize winning architects that make buildings that are satisfying and enjoyable to use, beautiful to look at and easy to understand. They are the practice behind the Hawley Wharf masterplan which saw the transformation of a previously neglected part of Camden Town into a vibrant new destination whilst enhancing the inherent identity of the area.

Other members of the project team include:

At 1.3 acres, 330 Gray’s Inn Road is a deceptively large site whose western boundary fronts prominently onto Gray’s Inn Road with a recognisable facade. To the north of the site is the characterful Wicklow Street and Swinton Street is located to the south. To the east, 330 Gray’s Inn Road is abutted by a railway line.

The site benefits from being within a short walking distance to King’s Cross Station and is serviced by local bus connections on Gray’s Inn Road and King’s Cross Road. It is categorised as having a PTAL 6B rating (Public Transport Accessibility Level), the highest achievable level.

The site falls within the Knowledge Quarter which represents a collection of over 100 organisations and spaces dedicated to innovation and collaborative working. This area supports cultural, research, scientific, business and academic institutions, such as the Francis Crick Institute and the British Library. 330 Grays’s Inn Road also falls within the King’s Cross Conservation Area, which covers areas including St Pancras Gardens, King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, Euston Road and Gray’s Inn Road.

The proposals

Over time, the hospital and healthcare facilities have evolved in an ad-hoc way to fast accommodate growing and changing healthcare needs. This has meant that the site has been developed on a piecemeal basis, with some of the newer buildings and extensions of poor design quality.

We believe the site has the opportunity to deliver an exciting family of building, supporting a number of different uses, including:

• 76 new homes, of varying mixes and tenures including studios, one and two beds, as well as family homes, across two distinct buildings located along Swinton Street and Wicklow Street. Following discussions with LBC and in response to local feedback, we are pleased to confirm the level of affordable housing has been increased to 50% (based on total number of habitable rooms).

• 14,000sqm of innovative and flexible office space, which will be able to cater for a variety of businesses, as well as lab-enabled workspaces, that will appeal to organisations that will further enhance the Knowledge Quarter’s reputation as a centre for creativity and entrepreneurial energy. 706sqm (5%) of the workspaces will be affordable, providing a space for local SMEs to grow in the heart of the Knowledge Quarter. These new office uses will connect to the new public courtyard.

• A 182-room lifestyle hotel, incorporating the historic 330 Gray’s Inn Road building. The hotel will have a vibrant lobby café and restaurant on the ground floor, open to the public, as well as local residents, to enjoy.

330 Gray’s Inn Road also has the potential to provide improved local routes and high-quality public realm through:

• The public courtyard will create access to the exciting new on-site offerings, including the café and restaurant, which will provide facilities for people to enjoy at their leisure. It will be a place where locals and visitors can sit, relax and meet friends and socialise, away from the busier street environment of Gray’s Inn Road.

• New, well managed routes through the site will offer access to the public courtyard and improve pedestrian connections through this neighbourhood quarter, providing greater access to and from King’s Cross. Following feedback from the community, we are now proposing that the routes will be closed during the evenings and closely monitored through increased surveillance measures, to ensure this space does not become a centre for anti-social behaviour.

• Soft landscaping will provide some much-needed greening to the area and central to this space will be a walnut tree. Open zones will offer a place for the public to freely enjoy and uncapped brick piers will provide informal screening elements made from site recycled brick at Wicklow Street.