How 'crumbling' St Mary's could look when rebuilt

Detailed plans for a new St Mary's Hospital have been released by the NHS.

Parts of the hospital in Paddington, west London, date back to 1845. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which owns the hospital, previously described some buildings as "crumbling".

Previous plans have been released for the new building, but this latest publication reveals much more of the detail of what will be included.

Prof Julian Redhead, chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said the current site was "very old and increasingly difficult to maintain", with "millions spent every year on essential maintenance".

Despite the money spent on the hospital every year, the trust said there "are still regular floods, outages and structural problems, which makes it increasingly difficult to run services safely".

The trust said it had "the largest backlog maintenance liability in the whole of the NHS" - which is the estimated cost of work needed to bring its buildings up to an acceptable condition.

It said there was "no time to lose" in beginning the redevelopment work.

The trust said it was working with partners in the St Mary's Redevelopment Funding Taskforce to explore "additional financing sources" to "accelerate" the main hospital building works.

The rebuild is included in the government's New Hospital Programme.

These latest plans will form the basis for a third round of public consultation, with the trust aiming to submit a planning application for the whole site in spring 2027.

The new building will be 30 storeys high and will occupy a much smaller footprint than the current hospital site.

The trust says the land that will then become available will "nearly double the amount of space for developing and scaling research and innovation".

The trust, which estimates this new innovation site could help to create between 9,000 and 11,000 additional jobs, says the project will "generate up to £1.3bn more per year in economic activity".

The plans explain that the building process on a smaller site will allow the hospital to continue running while the new one is constructed.

Redhead said: "St Mary's has an extraordinary history of care and medical breakthroughs across nearly 200 years, from the discovery of penicillin to becoming one of the country's first major trauma centres. But much of our estate is now very old and increasingly difficult to maintain.

"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a new hospital that meets the needs of our patients, staff and communities and regenerate the whole site into an expanded life sciences campus, attracting jobs and investment.

"We have been hugely encouraged by the conversations we've had with local people, patients and staff so far.

"I encourage everyone to take a look at the latest designs and share your views."

The survey will run until 31 October, and more details can be found here.

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