Calcutta House was built in 1909 as a tea warehouse for Brooke Bond in Aldgate, east London. London Met took it over in 2016. The university is due to vacate the building this summer.
The AJ100 practice has proposed adding a ‘light’ rooftop extension to the five-storey building, which will then be used to house higher education uses, although the architecture school is not expected to return to the site.
A separate, new student accommodation tower housing 794 rooms would rise to 19 storeys, with 220m² of shops on the ground floor and 102m² of flexible space created through part retention of an existing 1920s building, Oceanair House, to the south of the site.
The AJ100 practice submitted its proposals to Tower Hamlets last month on behalf of developer Trilogy, site owner Prudential Assurance Company and the City of London Corporation.
When plans were first revealed in an environmental impact assessment (EIA) scoping opinion submitted in September, the Calcutta House element of the scheme was one storey higher, providing 10,600m² of educational space, approximately 215m² of retail and 110m² of community uses, along with associated public realm.
The student tower had previously been expected to rise to 21 storeys.
AHMM said the project would ‘breathe new life into Calcutta House’ as well as neighbouring buildings. It said the scheme could also provide a new home for a ‘local educational charity and improve the streetscape and public realm for everyone’.
London Met will downsize its Aldgate campus into neighbouring buildings on Goulston Street and Wash Houses, where its architecture, interiors, furniture and product design courses and foundation programme will continue to be based. London Met is the freeholder of the buildings.
The move comes seven years after the university scrapped controversial plans to vacate Aldgate for Holloway Road, the university’s main campus.
Last summer, the AJ revealed that a dozen teaching roles at its architecture school in Aldgate were on the line as part of planned cuts to undergraduate teaching.
A detailed planning application for AHMM’s scheme will be submitted at a later date.
A spokesperson for Trilogy Real Estate said: ‘Trilogy Real Estate has submitted a planning application for the next phase of the Whitechapel campus site. The proposals seek to retain the location’s longstanding role in education by refurbishing existing buildings and introducing new student accommodation, ensuring the site can continue to support universities and colleges in the area.
‘The application will now be considered by Tower Hamlets Council through the usual planning process, and we will continue to engage with local residents and stakeholders as it progresses.’
Client’s view at consultation: Trilogy Real Estate
Trilogy Real Estate is consulting the public as part of preparations to submit a planning application to deliver a cutting-edge higher education campus with academic and teaching space alongside student accommodation in the centre of Whitechapel.
The site that we are proposing to redevelop, with a characterful former Brooke Bond tea warehouse at its heart, lies between Goulston Street and Old Castle Street with a section of frontage on to Whitechapel High Street. We want to reinforce this location as a place for learning, building on the historic use of these buildings by London Metropolitan University to create a multi-use 21st-century education campus.
Our ambition is for a restoration-led project that will invest significantly in securing the future of the Whitechapel Campus for another century.
AHMM’s proposed design will preserve and celebrate the character of the historic tea warehouse, with a plan that focuses on retaining this building and five others across the site.
We propose that the group of buildings centred around the tea warehouse will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for further and higher education, to create space for institutions that see the value of a well-connected city centre campus location surrounded by high-quality amenity. At the Whitechapel end of the site, we hope to build a new student accommodation building on a site identified as suitable for this use in the Tower Hamlets draft local plan.
Trilogy has a focus on delivering transformational public realm across all of its projects. The proposed design for the Whitechapel Campus will create new pocket parks and squares throughout the development, designed by Planit-IE, with a particular focus on improving pedestrian connections from Whitechapel High Street to Petticoat Lane Market. A new community facility and garden have been designed in consultation with members of the community to serve the needs of local residents.
We have a unique track record in delivering high-quality, regenerative, education-led building renewal projects in Tower Hamlets. Since 2018, Trilogy’s flagship campus, Republic at East India Dock, has breathed new life into an unloved complex of office buildings, creating a cutting-edge campus for 19,000 students in nine institutions operating out of remodelled buildings set within biodiverse water gardens.
Between 2022 and 2024, we masterminded the renewal of the former London College of Furniture buildings on Commercial Road to create The Amp, a 135,000 sq ft [12,500m2] education campus centred on digital creativity.
Trilogy continues to operate both campuses, gaining a deep understanding of the needs of students, educators and the community in the borough and beyond.
Project team
Architect AHMM
Development manager Trilogy Real Estate
Planning consultant Savills
Project manager Quartz
Landscape architect Planit
Structural design AKT II
MEP and services design Atelier Ten
Heritage and townscape consultant Montagu Evans
Sustainable design Atelier Ten
Fire engineer Dama
Transport and logistics Velocity
Acoustic design Quantum
Security consultant QCIC
Façade consultant FMDC
Façade access consultant Hilson Moran
Daylight/sunlight Point 2
Wind RWDI
Quantity surveyor Quartz
Air quality Buro Happold
Approved inspector Bureau Veritas
Principal designer Orsa
Utilities Brookbanks
EIA coordinator Trium
