The capital’s most innovative and sustainable planning projects were celebrated tonight at the 21st Building London Planning Awards.
Delivered by BusinessLDN, in partnership with the Mayor of London, the prestigious awards ceremony was held at the iconic Glaziers Hall and highlighted outstanding planning and development projects across the city.
The Mayor’s Award for Good Growth, selected from among the winners of all other categories, went to the former Granada Cinema by the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The scheme also won in the Placemaking, Heritage and Culture and Best Borough-Led Project categories.
Muniya Barua, Deputy Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, said: “This year’s awards recognise projects that put residents, businesses and sustainability front and centre to create great spaces across the city. It’s fantastic to see how cutting-edge and community-led design are breathing new life into different parts of the capital. All the firms that have been nominated are truly helping to make London an even better city in which to live, work and do business.”
Jules Pipe CBE, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Regeneration, said: “Huge congratulations to all of the winners at this year’s Building London Planning Awards, which continues to celebrate the very best projects throughout the capital. The diversity of award winners reflects the breadth of expertise that is driving forward world-leading delivery across our built environment, despite very challenging conditions. Thanks to all of the organisations that made this year’s ceremony such a brilliant event, including Newmark for supporting the Mayor’s Award for Good Growth.”
Westminster City Council’s Darwin House Building picked up the Best New Place to Live award – a community-supported development recognised by the judges as a project “where the needs of residents have shaped all aspects of design.”
The City of London’s 100 Fetter Lane development was named the Best New Place to Work for its wellbeing-led design, which encompasses roof terraces, a pocket park and links to a City garden, as well as being operationally net zero. Newmark’s St Pancras Commercial Centre in Camden, a project set to deliver significant improvements to the local public realm, scooped the award for Best Mixed-Use Project.
Other winners included the public-private partnership behind the new Silvertown Tunnel, as well as the Earls Court Development Company’s community-led masterplan, set to deliver a multibillion-pound boost to the capital’s economy.
For more than two decades, the Building London Planning Awards have celebrated outstanding planning and creative development across London’s built environment sector.
Entries were evaluated by an independent judging panel from BusinessLDN and its members, as well as our partner organisations – the Royal Town Planning Institute, BAME Planners Network, Greater London Authority, Planning Officers Society London and London Councils.
The winners and highly commended entries of the Building London Planning Awards 2025 in full:
THE MAYOR’S AWARD FOR GOOD GROWTH, SPONSORED BY NEWMARK
The winner for the Mayor’s Award for Good Growth category is chosen from the category winners below.
Winner: Former Granada Cinema, Walthamstow – submitted by the London Borough of Waltham Forest – The restoration of the former Granada Cinema and its rebirth as Soho Theatre Walthamstow is a pioneering project that has conserved and restored a Grade II* listed building and created a significant new cultural venue for the benefit of local people and London as a whole.
BEST NEW PLACE TO LIVE
Winner: Darwin House – submitted by Westminster City Council – The new Darwin House Building in Pimlico is a major success story, blending sustainability, community, and thoughtful design. This 100% affordable, community-supported development by Westminster City Council, with contractor Wates, delivers 34 homes that provide spacious and accessible living for older residents.
Highly Commended: Axion House – submitted by PRP Architects – As a model of thoughtful urban development, Axion House maximises a challenging site while addressing pressing housing and environmental concerns. It balances innovation with sustainability, integrates nature with urbanity, and exemplifies how the principles of the Architects’ Action for Affordable Housing Campaign can be successfully translated into practice.
Finalists: Greenwich Peninsula – submitted by Greenwich Peninsula; High Road Goodmayes – submitted by Rolfe Judd; Lombard Square – submitted by Berkeley Group; Oval Village – submitted by Berkeley Group; Riverscape – submitted by Rolfe Judd & Ballymore.
BEST NEW PLACE TO WORK
Winner: 100 Fetter Lane – submitted by City of London Corporation – 100 Fetter Lane delivers a best-in-class, Grade A, low-carbon, operationally net-zero, light, airy, and naturally ventilated workplace, designed with the well-being and happiness of its users key. The scheme delivers expansive roof terraces, a new pocket park with a café, and a reinvented City pub with new alleys linking to a City garden.
Finalists: 11 Belgrave Road – submitted by Newmark; Arthur Stanley House – submitted by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris; Frederick’s Place – submitted by City of London Corporation; The Earnshaw – submitted by Newmark.
BEST MIXED-USE PROJECT
Winner: St Pancras Commercial Centre – submitted by Newmark – The development combines a range of land uses to provide a sustainable design that successfully demonstrates co-location to deliver key land-use priorities. The scheme delivers improvements to the public realm, including the creation of new public open space and pedestrian routes through the site connecting to wider key areas of Camden.
Highly Commended: The Whiteley – submitted by Turley – The project re-imagines the former internal Whiteleys shopping centre located at the heart of Bayswater, delivering a mixed-use development that embraces and activates the street and a new central public courtyard with commercial uses, alongside over 150 new homes, a new boutique hotel, cinema, gym and other uses, designed by Foster + Partners.
Finalists: Glengall Road – submitted by Rolfe Judd; Oval Village – submitted by Berkeley Group; West End Gate – submitted by Berkeley Group.
PLACEMAKING, HERITAGE, AND CULTURE AWARD
Winner: Former Granada Cinema, Walthamstow – submitted by the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Finalists: ABBA Arena – submitted by Quod; AELTC Community Tennis Centre – submitted by Rolfe Judd; Down Lane Park, Haringey – submitted by Levitt Bernstein; London Eye Community Chest Grants Scheme – submitted by Hatch; Walworth Town Hall – submitted by Feix&Merlin Architects.
SUSTAINABLE PLANNING AWARD, SPONSORED BY LANDSEC
Winner: The City of London’s Sustainability Policy Guidance – submitted by City of London Corporation – The City of London Corporation has published an integrated suite of sustainability planning policy guidance, providing holistic guidance from heritage retrofit, Whole Life Carbon testing, Local Energy Networks, Circular Economy to Climate change mitigation. The guidance is impactful, with over half of all major applications in 2024 involving exemplary deep retrofit.
Finalists: Bloom Camberwell – submitted by Trigon; Panorama St Paul’s, 81 Newgate Street – submitted by City of London Corporation; Paradise – submitted by Bywater Properties; Urbanest, Battersea – submitted by Newmark.
BEST BOROUGH-LED PROJECT
Winner: Former Granada Cinema, Walthamstow – submitted by the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Highly commended: Tower Hamlets Town Hall – submitted by Newmark – An ambitious and challenging project to convert and extend the former Royal London Hospital (listed Grade II) on Whitechapel Road to provide a state-of-the-art new Town Hall and Civic Centre – consolidating all of the Council’s current services into one purpose-built facility, which opened in March 2023.
Finalists: Oru Sutton – submitted by London Borough of Sutton; Re-inventing the City’s alleys – submitted by City of London Corporation; Tower Court – submitted by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design; Wood Street Families and Homes Hub – submitted by London Borough of Waltham Forest; Woodberry Down – submitted by Berkeley Group.
PLANNING SERVICE OF THE YEAR
Winner: Enfield Council Planning Service – submitted by Enfield Council – Over the past two years, the Planning Service at Enfield has been on an extraordinary transformational journey, improving service performance, officer well-being, and progressing a new and ambitious Local Plan that will support the growth needs of the borough and wider region, alongside the delivery of quality outcomes for local communities.
Finalists: City of London Planning Team – submitted by City of London Corporation.
SOCIAL VALUES AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Winner: Earls Court: a masterplan with community at its heart – submitted by Earls Court Development Company – The Earls Court Development Company and ZCD Architects are transforming the former Earls Court Exhibition Centre site for Earls Court Partnership Limited: a joint venture between Delancey, APG, and TfL. The masterplan will create a better site, respond to the climate emergency, and deliver essential housing and a heritage for future generations.
Finalists: 980 Great West Road Redevelopment – submitted by Hadley Property Group; Waltham Forest Local Heritage List – submitted by London Borough of Waltham Forest.
BEST RETROFIT PROJECT, SPONSORED BY CBRE
Winner: Norton Folgate – submitted by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris – Occupying a prominent position on the City fringe, this office-led development is one of the most complex projects delivered by British Land and an architect team led by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. The project comprises three urban blocks, with the retention of a significant number of historic buildings, creation of six new buildings, and new public realm.
Highly Commended: Panorama St Paul’s, 81 Newgate Street – submitted by City of London Corporation – 81 Newgate is an outstanding, groundbreaking retrofit scheme, setting a benchmark for exemplary sustainability, Whole Life Carbon, biodiversity, and Circular Economy credentials – and saving 465 kg of CO2 per sqm by reusing structure and external cladding. 81 Newgate delivers London’s first net zero carbon-enabled office development, with best-in-class space and inclusive public benefits.
Finalists: 9 Cavendish Square – submitted by Rolfe Judd; Library Refurbishment Programme, London Borough of Bromley – submitted by London Borough of Bromley; Millbank Residences – submitted by Berkeley Group; Thirty High (Portland House) – submitted by Newmark.
INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING AWARD
Winner: Silvertown Tunnel – submitted by Transport for London – Linking Silvertown to the Greenwich Peninsula in East London, the new tunnel is boosting cross-river public transport, helping to reduce congestion at the Blackwall Tunnel, delivering faster journeys during peak times, and managing overall air quality.
Finalists: Paddington Square – submitted by Newmark; St. Martin’s Courtyard – submitted by Brimelow McSweeney Architects; TwelveTrees Park – submitted by Berkeley Group.
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD
Winner: Dr Victoria Hills, Chief Executive at the Royal Town Planning Institute