'Knowledge Cities 2023 Report' part two

Above: QMUL, Scott Brownrigg, Barts Health NHS Trust and the London Borough of Waltham Forest were among contributing organisatons that joined our 'Knowledge Cities' discussion in the Council Chamber at Tower Hamlets Town Hall - with NHS Property Services, and Barts Life Sciences also present.

The second part of our discussions at Tower Hamlets Town Hall concentrated on the educational and social mobility aspects of the growth of life sciences in Tower Hamlets. There was also discussion on how a science innovation area could be built in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, known primarily for being the first London Borough of Culture. How can links to the UK Innovation Corridor - from Cambridge through Stansted - help with the growth of life sciences in the east of London?

The Innovation Corridor describes itself as 'a dynamic ecosystem of international businesses, maverick academics, ambitious start-ups, City finance and law firms, all cross-pollinating to accelerate their success. It is a symbiotic network of supply chains that reaches out beyond the region, throughout the UK and around the globe, making The Innovation Corridor a highly advanced sci-tech superhighway.

'The secret to the region's success is its connectivity. Location is everything. And the Innovation Corridor resides at a pivotal spot in the world, making it the chosen place for entrepreneurs, intellectuals and investors to congregate. The city axis of London and Cambridge – only 60 miles apart, hot-linked by the M11 motorway, and 1 hour by train – is networked with prized international rail and flight links. Stansted Airport – serving 180 destinations in 38 countries, sits at the heart, with London City Airport and St Pancras International, all connecting the region with the rest of the world.'

The contributors in the second part of Future Cities Forum discussion at Whitechapel were Scott Brownrigg Associate, Ross McWatt, Professor Claudia Langenberg, Director of PHURI (Precision Health University Research Institute) and Fraser Burt, Executive Officer - Policy and Strategic, both from Queen Mary, University of London, Andrew Attfield, Associate Director of Public Health at Barts Health NHS Trust, Jonathan Martin, Head of Inward Investment at the London Borough of Waltham Forest and Senior Inward Investment Manager, also at the London Borough of Waltham Forest, Fay Cannings, with comments and insights by life sciences and healthcare expert - and former Deloitte Head of Major Programmes - Mike Standing, and by Rob Beacroft, Director of developer Lateral.

Above: architect Scott Brownrigg is known for its high quality designs of science park buildings in Oxford and Cambridge

The importance of east London being linked through the UK Innovation Corridor to Cambridge cannot be under-estimated for future growth and Scott Brownrigg's Associate, Ross McWatt, joined the conversation to give some insight into the best way to re-purpose buildings for life science expansion, from his experience of working in Cambridge.

The practice’s design for over 600,000 square feet of speculative office and laboratory buildings in Cambridge for developer Biomed Realty received planning approval in 2021.

The 15 acre site at Fulbourn Road Cambridge will provide 600,000-net-sq-ft of laboratory and office space, aimed at life sciences, biotechnology and more traditional office occupiers. To be known as Cambridge International Technology Park, the buildings will be capable of being occupied by a variety of users for multi or single occupation.

With a highly sustainable and environment focused approach, the Park will provide flexible space suitable for a range of end user needs, particularly important given the diverse range of target occupiers in the Cambridge market.

The Campus is centred around a new approach to outdoor collaborative workspace; a series of landscaped terraces, platforms and gardens are designed to be fully accessible to all. Anticipating the benefits of 5G and mobile technology this new outdoor workspace incudes protective covered areas to encourage people to work wherever they like, bringing the indoors out. Combined with highly sustainable, energy efficient buildings with a flexible office and laboratory use, the Cambridge International Technology Park will be an exemplar Science Hub in Southern Cambridge. Reinforcing the region’s status as a world leading centre for research and development.

The project represents a major investment by Biomed Realty in the Cambridge office market where demand, especially for life sciences, biotechnology and other more traditional office users remains high.

The appointment for Scott Brownrigg follows the successful completion of projects in Cambridge, including a silicon-inspired headquarters for technology company, Arm, and the Bio-Hub at Cambridge Science Park. Construction is also currently underway for the Scott Brownrigg-designed Plot 1 – 21 Cambridge Science Park.

Scott Brownrigg's Associate, Ross McWatt, commented:

'On the appropriateness of town centres to absorb life science labs and offices in addition to the usual uses at science parks, I think it could work. In the centre of Cambridge, retail is falling empty and in particular in the financial sector, whereas life sciences are in high demand.

'However the type of building to accommodate life science work has to be considered. They have to be fairly strong in terms of structure to cope with vibration but retail buildings are good at providing servicing and that is important. It can be difficult to shoe horn science into existing buildings, they need gas storage, back up generation and waste storage, but they do have logistics for deliveries.

'The question that we need to ask is - are these buildings set to last and over the next economic cycle? Could they be re-converted back into domestic dwellings. One concern is not to knock down existing buildings but see if they can be re-used, linking heritage and local needs. The idea of hybrid buildings is important, using parts of them for research and other parts for labs that can cope with high demand.'

Life Sciences expert and former partner and head of Major Programmes at Deloitte, Mike Standing added:

'It's a very exciting time for London and life sciences. About 10 years ago there was talk of just two clusters. Now we have eight. That's a great example of progress. London has moved away from talking about assets to talking about how you use them. Specialising is central to this. The reality is that life sciences are very complex and you have to be world class at particular things.

'There are three new trends to think about. One is the move to talk about healthcare delivery clusters, not life sciences clusters. It's now much more about innovation in healthcare integrated with innovation in life sciences, transforming how patients lives are lived. It's about helping those who have lived for 50 years with debilitating conditions, and the economic consequences of that. The focus is now on delivery clusters that bring together the healthcare system, communities and life sciences companies.

'Looking outwards is very powerful, but it is not just about seeing the scientists at work, it is about people thinking that it is their institution. A break through is when people start going to hospital when they are not ill, because they feel part of the institution and they want to contribute.

'Trend two is how we accelerate the delivery of the clusters. We take way too long in planning and we are slow and that changes the economics of investments and delays the impact of innovation and transforming quality of care.

'The third trend is about the meaning of these buildings. Traditionally hospitals have been very technical and very enclosed. They are the last examples of industrial buildings inside cities. They use enormous amounts of resources, and their carbon footprint is poor. They are really factories and they need to be much more human. The Rehab facility by Herzog & de Meuron in Basel is very interesting because it transforms the way people - with catastrophic injuries - recover. You might think it might be a place of real tragedy but the restaurant when I saw it was full of laughter. Emotional quality is under-invested in the UK.

View from the town hall towards the Royal London Hospital with life sciences development sites on right of picture

Professor Claudia Langenberg, Director of Queen Mary University of London's Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI) and Professor of Computational Medicine at the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité Universitätsmedizin, Germany, spoke in the debate about the importance of high quality buildings and infrastructure if the new life sciences district is to work well.

PHURI is a cross-faculty institute that builds on the powerful partnership between Queen Mary and Barts NHS Trust. It is part of the organisations’ shared focus on accelerating the latest healthcare innovations from bench to bedside to deliver better health for all. The institute drives research to better understand how disease impacts different patient groups and works in close partnership with the Trust to use real-world clinical data to drive the development and targeted prescription of treatments based on patients’ needs. This is helping to build a stronger health service for the people of East London, the UK and the world. PHURI is co-located with DERI in Empire House on the Whitechapel Campus until their dedicated building is finalised.

Professor Langenberg joined Queen Mary from Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) where she was a Professor of Computational Medicine, and the University of Cambridge where she was the Medical Research Council (MRC) Investigator and Programme Leader at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. Professor Langenberg is also a public health clinician by training, and her research is focused on the genetic basis of metabolic control.

Professor Langenberg, Director of the Precision Health University Research Institute, said of her appointment at QMUL:

“Every patient deserves a precise diagnosis that enables targeted therapy and an informed answer to the simple question ‘how serious is my problem, doctor?’. Currently, this isn’t the case for many patients.

"We know that population groups in East London are underrepresented in research, and we want to change this. The creation of the PHURI allows us to focus on research that matters to our local population, treat patients according to their specific diagnosis, and generate knowledge that helps to achieve precision health care and better health for all. ‘From Whitechapel to the world’ is a phrase that immediately inspired me to take on this exciting opportunity.”

At Future Cities Forum she described how there was a need to increase diversity both in terms of the people employed in life sciences and the need for drug testing:

'We have the scale here in the Whitechapel area and the diversity, and that's what we need. We need flexibiity in recruitment to create diversity among the people who we want to work here. We need infrastructure, investment and a masterplan. Creativity is found in individuals, so we need to be sure what we are putting on the table is the best to attract that talent. It is very dense as an area here and if you are used to living in urban spaces it is fine, but if you want to live further out, it is hard to commute in. Where is the space for nurseries, how can I eat a healthy lunch and in what suitable space, there is a lack of space here.

'Apprenticeships can be very helpful with upcoming talent because they give you the flexibility of finding out where you want to go. They are schemes that can really help you to find the right fit and alternative careers for different population groups. It is sometimes hard to succeed in science careers if you do not see many other people like yourself at the top. We need to keep the talent in the game and that requires a certain amount of agility of different types of employment.'

QMUL's Fraser Burt also commented on how the University was helping in this area:

'At QMUL, we think of ourselves as an anchor institution. The education that we offer goes with community engagement. Our degree and apprenticeship courses represents our local community. We have the infrastructure to develop the benefits for local people. Our participation team is a big driver in social mobility. We learn a lot from this in terms of how to access science for the local community and provide engagement.'

Life Sciences expert and former partner and head of Major Programmes at Deloitte, Mike Standing commented:

'It's a very exciting time for London and life sciences. About 10 years ago there was talk of just two clusters. Now we have eight. That's a great example of progress. London has moved away from talking about assets to talking about how you use them. Specialising is central to this. The reality is that life sciences are very complex and you have to be world class at particular things.

'There are three new trends to think about. One is the move to talk about healthcare delivery clusters, not life sciences clusters. It's now much more about innovation in healthcare integrated with innovation in life sciences, transforming how patients lives are lived. It's about helping those who have lived for 50 years with debilitating conditions, and the economic consequences of that. The focus is now on delivery clusters that bring together the healthcare system, communities and life sciences companies.

'Looking outwards is very powerful, but it is not just about seeing the scientists at work, it is about people thinking that it is their institution. A break through is when people start going to hospital when they are not ill, because they feel part of the institution and they want to contribute.

'Trend two is how we accelerate the delivery of the clusters. We take way too long in planning and we are slow and that changes the economics of investments and delays the impact of innovation and transforming quality of care.

'The third trend is about the meaning of these buildings. Traditionally hospitals have been very technical and very enclosed. They are the last examples of industrial buildings inside cities. They use enormous amounts of resources, and their carbon footprint is poor. They are really factories and they need to be much more human. The Rehab facility by Herzog & de Meuron in Basel is very interesting because it transforms the way people - with catastrophic injuries - recover. You might think it might be a place of real tragedy but the restaurant when I saw it was full of laughter. Emotional quality is under-invested in the UK.

Andrew Attfield, Assistant Director of Public Health at Barts Heath NHS Trust commented:

'I was policy and regeneration manager for Barts Health NHS Trust previously so I find this discussion interesting. In terms of education, we employ about 1,500 people who have gone through our schemes - working with Queen Mary -, including 400 young people who have moved into health-related degrees, half of these are the first generation from their families to attend university. I am quite proud of this.'

In February 2010, the Marmot Review Team published Fair Society, Healthy Lives. This was the culmination of a year long independent review into health inequalities in England which Professor Sir Michael Marmot was asked to chair by the Secretary of State for Health. The review proposes the most effective evidence-based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England from 2010.

Andrew added:

'Through the Marmot approach, we can focus on the importance of early years and this gives us an opportunity to turn it into a beacon of health - for east London.

'What Marmot did was to look at differences between health outcomes related to BAME deprivation, correlated with ethnicity and gender. This was about talking in terms of the core 20 per cent of the population in the most deprived areas of country being linked to five health conditions - including early diagnosis of cancer. This is the bit where it gets real in terms of our communities.'

Jonathan Martin, Head of Inward Investment in the London Borough of Waltham Forest said that the forum had been a fantastic insight:

'We are working on health outcomes based on the Marmot approach and what that means in our people directory and how they engage with our communities. Our investment in place and that sort of intervention can be seen in our wider health care programme. We have our national green space and reservoir that sits on the boundary with Haringey and connects to the Innovation Corridor. What we discuss with our investors are the spaces between buildings and how that impacts on peoples' health and wellbeing, and what we can do in terms of outcomes on air pollution, getting people to walk and providing the 15-minute neighbourhood, making things local. Our focus groups with residents are very important in this matter.

'We are part of the UK Innovation Corridor, with strong links to Cambridge and Stansted, where life sciences is very big and we want to make the best of those benefits of that corridor, responding to growth coming forward and changing the trajectory of life chances and of our businesses.

'The University of Portsmouth has launched a base in our borough and will start teaching next year and it is important that town centres are to become a focus for higher education. It is also next to our cultural quarter with the Soho Theatre opening next year. So we are hoping that cultural infrastructure will attract talent and scientists to want to come and work and live in the borough. We want to build more inclusive buildings and preserve our rich heritage.'

Fay Cannings, Investment Manager at Waltham Forest Council, added:

'We must enhance our town centres for all generations, from students to families and we are working to this end across our place directorate. We have our key destinations and our industrial area where we want to encourage creative businesses and start ups. There are key areas in the borough where we want to bring in new hubs and to attract these we want to preserve the unique character of those places and make them special. There are new tower blocks coming forward and the University of Portsmouth is part of that and we also have our fashion district which is important.'

Waltham Forest Council is at an exciting point in its development of Walthamstow town centre with investment from the University of Portsmouth wanting a base in London and the new Soho Theatre, a former EMD Granada Cinema where Hitchcock used to watch films, due to open this coming September.

In January 2023, the government announced that two Levelling Up Fund bids investing in projects in Waltham Forest Council have been successful. In March 2023, the government approved the Levelling Up Fund bid for infrastructure funding for Chingford Mount and Highams Park.

The funds will bring upgrades to Leyton Station, Walthamstow Town Centre, Chingford Mount and Highams Park. Projects in Waltham Forest have received the highest amount of funding from the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) of any London borough and are set to receive approximately £39m in total to improve Leyton Station as well as for projects developing a Cultural Quarter across Walthamstow Town Centre.

A second bid for £17.2m submitted by the Council alone was also successful and will be used to deliver projects that unlock Walthamstow’s potential as an inclusive, safe, and welcoming cultural destination. The intention is that the investment will increase footfall in the Town Centre throughout the day and evening, widen cultural participation, generate opportunities for creative enterprise and create pathways into employment and training for residents.

The programme of improvements complements wider Council and private sector-led investment in Walthamstow Town Centre, including delivery of landmark destination Soho Theatre Walthamstow, and ongoing regeneration plans for St James Quarter and 17&Central, which are delivering a range of new and affordable homes, new community facilities, including a new health centre, shops, leisure, and workspaces.

Above: CGI of remodelled EMD Granada Cinema for Soho Theatre, Walthamstow, image courtesy of Pilbrow & Partners

Lateral's Rob Beacroft ended the discussion by saying that he would like to talk further to the London Borough of Waltham Forest and what he was looking for as a developer:

'We are the first private investor in Whitechapel and it is the cluster of institutions that have been in the area for many years such as Barts and QMUL and how they are wired into the community that was attractive for us. It was important to us to be the first mover and the collaboration as a cluster is really galvanising. We are helping to shape how the area looks in terms of the built environment and what we have here, we have never seen before. We certainly see the ability to expand, the liveability, education, f&b and green spaces are all important. There is an opportunity of scale here and an opportunity to collaborate in a meaningful way.'

Conclusions

• High-quality place-making - as in the proposed Green Spine for the Whitechapel district of Tower Hamlets - supports the sustainability of new life science districts. Outdoor collaboration spaces are important

• Within place-making there should be plenty of opportunities for walking and cycling for healthier lifestyles

• While there is a need for tight security around some research, buildings should be designed to be porous to welcome in the community

• 'Science on display' on the ground floor of buildings encourages the dymystifying of life sciences for the local community and for young people considering careers in this area

• Developers like Lateral have shown the importance of STEM education provision for local schools

• New life science districts thrive in areas of diverse communities for research, but also benefit from connections with leading institutions and partnerships with the private sector. Collaboration is key. How to locate industrial and manufacturing bases nearby should be considered.

• Well chosen research programmes can lead to effective interventions for the community to prevent health disparities. PHURI at QMUL is looking at the need for targeted therapy for patients.

• The preservation of heritage is not only important for place-making but also for well-being. It supports local communities through restoring high streets and market places but care must be taken not to gentrify areas and price local people out of housing

• Apprenticeships are important to help local people into jobs in new life science districts and young people should be aware of the range of job opportunities outside of research that they could apply for and have access to senior role models to support them

• If the planning process of new life science districts takes too long, it changes the economics of investment and delays the impact of innovation and the transforming of quality of care

• Hospitals are the last example of industrial buildings in cities and they need to be more human - emotional quality is under-invested in the UK

• Life sciences districts in east London must be linked through the UK Innovation Corridor to Cambridge for maximum advantage with benefits felt by the local community

Below: crossing from Whitechapel station to Tower Hamlets Town Hall with the new Royal London Hospital behind