Vision | Vinegar Yard

A PLACE FOR HEALTH AND CREATIVITY

DESIGNED TO BE PART OF THE EMERGING SC1 LIFE SCIENCE & INNOVATION DISTRICT, VINEGAR YARD WILL BE A HOME FOR NHS CLINICAL USES OR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT USES, CONTRIBUTING TO HIGH IMPACT HEALTH AND RESEARCH INNOVATION AND DRIVING IMPROVEMENTS IN HEALTH AND WEALTH IN SOUTHWARK AND BEYOND.

It is proposed that Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust will have first refusal on the floor space, which meets a new design standard for healthy and flexible buildings. Built in adaptability makes Vinegar Yard equally suitable for lab space and research & development, or as the home for a global healthcare business.

A big and genuinely affordable workspace at the base of the building provides space proposed for Southwark Studios who manage workspaces for individual artists and small businesses in the creative industries. We are also providing innovative affordable workspace proposed for life science start-ups that will feed the innovation ecosystem.

A highly sustainable design will achieve net zero operational carbon and bring a new urban garden and a tree lined boulevard to St Thomas Street. The historic Fenning Street warehouse is retained and becomes a new flexible event and community space to bring people together. Jobs and investment generated by the development will also boost Southwark’s post-Covid recovery.

BUILDING A NEW LIFE SCIENCE DISTRICT

The SC1 Life Science & Innovation District (SC1) is a collaboration between King’s Health Partners, Lambeth Council, Southwark Council and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation. Its ambition is to be a global quarter of high impact healthcare innovation. In essence, the success of SC1 rests on the co-location of healthcare, research & development and a mix of both global businesses and start-ups. The right buildings in the right place are vital to this ecosystem.

Vinegar Yard will be a key part of this Innovation District and has been co-designed with the team at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London to meet their new design standard for it, called the Adaptable Estate Strategy.

The Adaptable Estate Strategy sets out a specification for ‘base’ buildings that are physically capable of accommodating the specialist requirements of healthcare, research & development and commercial occupiers, whilst having the flexibility to change and adapt. This built in flexibility gives the building a much longer lifespan and avoids the adverse environmental impacts of having to replace the building to accommodate new uses. Key features that make this inherent flexibility possible include increased floor to ceiling heights, enhanced floor rigidity, additional plant rooms and high-level extract locations.

Vinegar Yard will be an exemplar of these standards and the first private development in the location that meets them. As a result, it is a building that can evolve and change with the needs of the area and the Life Science Innovation District, with the potential for two, three or more distinct uses/ users over its lifespan.