4 September 2020
LONDON UNIVERSITY SIGNS FOR CROYDON'S ELECTRIC HOUSE
Business Space, Offices
London South Bank University has exchanged on a landmark deal on 56,000 sq ft at Croydon's Electric House as it moves to establish a new campus in the borough.
The new campus will be for students studying health, social care, business and finance, with courses expected to start in September 2021.
Croydon Council has just granted planning approval to convert the four-storey Electric House, in Wellesley Road, to university accommodation, including a lecture theatre, classrooms and a café. It will also include nursing skills suites that replicate hospital wards, while a ground floor business hub will provide shared public facilities.
Listed building consent has simultaneously been given to the Grade II listed building which was originally an electricity showroom (1939-42) and has been vacant since the Home Office moved out in 2013.
It will be London South Bank University's second campus outside central London, alongside Havering. It is working in partnership with Croydon Council's inward investment team to provide the first-rate higher education the people and employers of the area deserve.
SHW advised the landlord on the deal throughout, from marketing the dilapidated building through to negotiating fit-out works and overseeing the planning applications for the university.
SHW director Holly Purvis commented: "This is huge news for Croydon, and it has been immensely satisfying to work with the landlord to bring a new university to the borough. As a listed building requiring much attention, it was an enormously challenging project but one that will benefit Croydon for many years to come."
Professor Patrick Bailey, London South Bank University provost, said: "We are delighted LSBU Croydon has taken another major step forward. Croydon is the perfect location for our new university campus which will train the next generation of nurses and business leaders and set graduates up for successful careers by preparing them to hit the ground running."
Richard Plant, head of South London, Surrey & Kent at SHW and chairman of Develop Croydon, added: "This fulfils Croydon Council's ambition to bring a university to the town and will help to establish the borough as a hub for higher education in south London. The new creative campus will provide excellent education and career opportunities for Croydon's growing population and more local jobs."
