Bouygues is working to bring the Grade-II-listed former Royal London Hospital building that once housed John Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man, back into community use as a new town hall.
The new town hall will occupy the refurbished hospital building on Whitechapel Road. The facade of the hospital is being retained, while there will be a new-build structure at the rear providing 26,700 sq m of office space for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
In a newly released video, area manager Katherine Round explains some of the complexities of the £109.5m project.
There is an emergency helicopter flight path above the site, as well as a London Underground tunnel below the retained facade. The site is also close to two large working hospitals: the Royal London Dental Hospital and the Royal London Hospital.
Demolition of the hospital involved the removal of significant quantities of asbestos. The structural works in the retained building took two years, along with the construction of the building that wraps around the Royal Hospital.
The new town hall project forms part of the Whitechapel Vision regeneration project, which involves the construction of a new life sciences campus, seven new public spaces and 3,500 new homes.
