The new centre, called Oriel, is a partnership between Moorfields Eye Hospital, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, and Moorfields Eye Charity. Due to open in 2027, the centre will bring clinicians from the hospital’s City Road site and scientists under one roof for the first time.

Dedicated education space located throughout the building will offer collaborative environments for knowledge sharing and an enhanced space for students to learn from world leaders in ophthalmology and vision science. The centre has been co-designed by staff and patients to ensure it offers an inclusive environment where innovative research will flourish, staff will thrive, and patients will experience an enhanced seamless patient experience.

The state-of-the-art centre will be one of the first digitally enabled, smart NHS hospitals in which technology will play a pivotal role in how people use the building. Improving access and reducing eye healthcare inequalities have been an important focus through the design process. Patients will be able to access specialist care virtually via the centre’s digital front door, helping deliver care closer to home and avoid unnecessary visits.

An innovation hub will be located in the heart of the new centre to encourage collaboration and is intended to be a catalyst for interaction, dissemination of knowledge and cross fertilisation of ideas and concepts between clinicians and researchers at the forefront of translational ophthalmic science, especially in the digital domain. The innovative building design has created standardised scientific wet lab ‘neighbourhoods’, where each research group will have access to specialist tissue cell laboratories, genomic research and state-of-the-art cellular and molecular imaging.

The centre, under construction by Bouygues UK, is located in King’s Cross Knowledge Quarter, close to UCL’s Bloomsbury campus.

The new centre has been funded by proceeds from the sale of the current sites near Old Street, £100m from donors to Moorfields Eye Charity and UCL Advancement, and £110m from the Department of Health and Social Care through the first wave of the New Hospital Programme.

Professor Alan Thompson, dean of the UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences, said: “Our ambition to build a centre that will create space to speed up the development of new ophthalmic treatments is now a reality. We believe this new innovative centre will help us remain at the forefront of ophthalmic science. The enviable dedicated space for education throughout the building will provide us with exemplar facilities for training future generations of ophthalmic experts.”

Laura Wade-Gery, chair of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The topping out is a momentous occasion in our journey to create an integrated centre for us to continue our world-leading research and ophthalmic care. We’re extremely proud of the centre’s co-design ethos and believe we’ve created an environment that will enable us to continue to provide the highest quality patient care while driving forward innovation in ophthalmology. Ophthalmology clinics account for 10 per cent of all hospital NHS outpatient visits and this figure is expected to rise, so we designed the new centre to ensure it is built to meet future demand.”

Robert Dufton, Moorfields Eye Charity chief executive, said: “Philanthropy has played an integral role in the funding of this new centre and we are proud to hear how it will help ensure Moorfields and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology continue to be world leaders in ophthalmic health care innovation.” And Fabienne Viala, chair and chief executive of Bouygues UK, hailed the progress made on the project as showcasing “the power of our collaboration and shared vision”.

Lead architect on the project is AECOM, working alongside lead design architect Penoyre & Prasad. White Arkitekter is also one of the design architects.