THE UCL EAST SITE

The opening of Marshgate in 2023 marked the formal opening of both UCL East buildings. UCL East is a secondary campus of University College London located at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. The plan for the new site was announced in 2011. Currently the UCL East sites consist of two buildings: Marshgate and One Pool Street. There are plans for a potential additional four more buildings to be constructed on the site. One Pool Street has accommodation for over 500 students, a lecture theatre that doubles as a cinema and an exhibition space known as the Urban Room. It was shortlisted for the Architects journal Architecture Awards 2023 in the Higher Education category.* Marshgate  has eight floors and consists of a café, community hub, lecture theatres, and many seminar rooms and study spaces. It also houses a library. 

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UCL East was part of plans to transform the Olympic Park into a centre for culture and learning; creating new degrees for students and aiming to have a public facing role which would lead to ‘urban regeneration’.** This plan correlated with, and is a consequence of, the regeneration of this area due to the 2012 Olympics. Newham was a particularly poor area of London before 2012, with demographic league tables positioning it as the sixth most deprived local authority in England, having the highest national levels of household overcrowding, and London’s youngest borough (average age= 31.8 years). ***

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The proposed aim of hosting the Olympics in this area was to establish thousands of permanent jobs, thousands of new households, and create new green spaces and parks for public use. The success of these aims has been mixed with some people facing issues with relocation thanks to the building of new spaces and gentrification. It is possible that we still don’t know the full consequences of this regeneration project in Newham and the surrounding areas. How will UCL East fit into this legacy?  

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References

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*https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/aj-architecture-awards-2023-shortlist-he_schools_health_refurb 

**https://www.ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/news/2015/sep/ucl-urban-laboratory-launches-university-led-urban-regeneration-case-studies 

***Giulianotti, Richard, Gary Armstrong, Gavin Hales, and Dick Hobbs. “Sport Mega-Events and Public Opposition: A Sociological Study of the London 2012 Olympics.” Journal of sport and social issues 39, no. 2 (2015): 99–119