Construction company Bouygues UK will build new £105m town hall in Whitechapel

The ground floor will be dedicated for public use and the upper floors used as office space. Picture: Tower Hamlets Council (Image: Archant)

The contract for Tower Hamlets’ £105 million town hall has been handed to construction company Bouygues UK.

The company’s previous work in the borough includes Raines School in Bethnal Green and Beatrice Tate School in Mile End. It is also responsible for the building of 190 homes in the regeneration of Barking’s Gascoigne Estate.

The hall – on the site of the former Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel Road – will be part new build, part refurbishment of the Grade Two listed building.

Fabienne Viala, Chairman of Bouygues UK, said: “We have an excellent relationship with the London borough of Tower Hamlets, having built a number of schools across the area.

The town hall will be built on the site of the former London Royal Hospital in Whitechapel Road. Picture: Tower Hamlets Council (Image: Archant)

“It is great to be continuing that relationship by creating a new town hall that will provide a high-quality working environment for council staff and improved facilities for the local community.”

The hall’s ground floor will be dedicated to public use, with meeting spaces, a cafe, and the council chamber. The upper floors will be used for offices, with 26,700m of civic office space and an open plan office.

Construction will begin later this year with a completion date set for autumn 2021. It will open in 2022.

John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “We’re pleased to have appointed Bouygues UK to work with us to deliver a new town hall for the borough’s residents. We look forward to working in partnership with the company to develop our plans.”

The building is estimated to cost around £105 million, with £78 million recovered through the sale of old council buildings.

Around 400 construction jobs will be generated each year of the three-year development, with 20 per cent of these going to Tower Hamlets residents.

The finished hall is also guaranteed to be environmentally friendly – there’ll be bike parking which can be accessed directly from the Cycle Superway, and water-efficient toilets and showers and an energy efficient heating system.

The town hall is part of the Whitechapel Vision Masterplan, which includes the opening of Crossrail at Whitechapel station later in the year, and a new life sciences campus for Queen Mary’s University.