The new clinical building, set on Great Ormond Street itself, will be dedicated to caring for children and young people from across the UK and beyond with rare and difficult-to-treat cancers.

There is a pressing need for the new centre, with 1200 children making visits to GOSH last year for specialist cancer treatment; in addition, instances of cancer continue to increase, and childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death in children aged 1-14 years old. 

Matthew Shaw, chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said the granting of planning permission was “an important step towards more children and young people being able to receive care and treatment in the best possible environment”.

He went on: “This new centre will put us in a strong position to build on the decades of work undertaken by our clinicians and the researchers from our academic partner, the Institute for Child Health (ICH), to deliver the very best, kindest and effective treatments for cancer.”

Focus on play and learning activities

Some of the hospital’s existing cancer clinics are based in buildings from the 1930s, with services scattered across the hospital campus.

Designed by BDP, as part of Phase 4 of the hospital’s wider masterplan redevelopment, the new cancer centre will feature a new main entrance to the hospital. This will provide an opportunity to give greater expression to GOSH’s identity, providing a more welcoming experience for patients and users and creating a new public face for the hospital. There are also plans to create a new school for the children who come to GOSH.

With children treated together in a bespoke environment, designed to meet their needs, the centre will provide a focus on play and physical and educational activities, alongside medical treatment. And by co-locating with the ICH and other research partners, the facilities at the new centre will enable GOSH to get new treatments to patients more rapidly.

Facilities will include cancer wards, cancer day care, new theatres, and intensive care units – enabling the specialist teams for patients to work more closely together. The building will also house new imaging equipment and a specialised chemotherapy pharmacy.

The intention now is to work with Camden Council and the Greater London Authority to secure full planning permission.  The deconstruction and construction programme will take around three years to complete.

Acting as the Trust’s planning advisor for the new cancer centre, BDP has been embedded within the client team, helping to shape the proposals to manage out planning risk and building the case for the significant redevelopment of the hospital.