RICS London 2024 regional award winners revealed

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has also picked out a new children’s treatment centre, a community project and a state-of-the-art housing complex in its 2024 London regional awards.

The Old Curiosity Shop, made famous by Charles Dickens in his 19th-century novel of the same title, has won the RICS Heritage Project award after renovation work on the premises in Portsmouth Street, off Kingsway.

The Old Curiosity Shop in Holborn was made famous by Charles Dickens (Image: RICS)

The shop opened in 1567 and a century later survived the Great Fire of London, which stopped a few streets away.

The building's roof has now been repaired from rainwater damage and the premises renovated by the London School of Economics, which bought it in 2018 to expand its Holborn campus.

Winning the refurbishment category is Tower Hamlets Town Hall in Whitechapel, converted from the old London Hospital, which dates back to 1740.

The former London Hospital was converted into Tower Hamlets' new town hall (Image: LBTH)

The site was bought from the NHS for £9 million in 2015, when the hospital moved to a new site round the corner.

Queen Elizabeth II gave it Royal patronage in 1990 to mark the 250th anniversary of the hospital in Whitechapel Road.

Project managers Turner and Townsend were appointed in 2018 as specialist design guardians to preserve its heritage for the new town hall.

Another site in the awards is Evelina Children’s Day Treatment Centre, which opened last summer on the South Bank, next to St Thomas’s in Lambeth.

Evelina Children’s Day Treatment centre on the South Bank in Lambeth (Image: RICS)

The centre, which won the prize for best public sector project, is on “a highly constrained, sensitive site” between the Victorian St Thomas’s and the contemporary Evelina Hospital which inspired “innovations in healthcare design”.

The residential development award went to Juniper House in Walthamstow, with its low-cost homes, a nursery and classrooms for higher education.

Walthamstow's Juniper House complex (Image: RICS)

It was designed for Waltham Forest Council, close to amenities in Hoe Street.

Judges noted the way its neighbouring park and trees blended with homes and a nursery garden with space for toddlers to play.

“These projects are testament to the hard work of industry professionals in London,” judging panel chair Ross Sinclair said. “The collaborative approaches have led to innovations that represent the very best across London.”

The community benefit project award went to a North Paddington housing complex in Harrow Road, meeting a severe need for low-cost council housing.

A balcony with a view in Harrow Road overlooking Regent's Canal (Image: RICS)

Its three blocks have 112 “genuinely affordable” homes, with a nursery, community centre, canal-side café and start-up office space, all designed by Child Graddon Lewis architects.

The scheme was changed mid-way during construction by a new council administration from being half for private sale to 100 per cent 'affordable', mostly social rent.

The London regional awards show “the most inspirational initiatives” in land, real estate and construction. The five winners have been shortlisted to compete in October for Britain’s Architectural Project of the Year.