London College of Communication, UAL is delighted to accept a generous award of £300,000 from the Wolfson Foundation in support of the move to our new home — our brand-new, purpose-built building in Elephant and Castle due to open in September 2027.
Having been based in Elephant and Castle since 1962, and in south London for over 100 years through our ancestor organisation Saint Bride's Foundation Institute, we have a proven track record of bringing educational, cultural, and economic benefits to our local communities — and our new building will allow us to expand even further on this.
Our new building’s first two floors will be open to the public, meaning it will be easier than ever for visitors to explore everything we have to offer — from student showcasing and public events to popping in for a coffee amongst the creative buzz of a thriving student community.
Opening up the archives
This specific funding from the Wolfson Foundation will focus on expanding access to UAL’s Archives and Special Collections Centre, which will be based in the public-access area of the first floor of our new building.
With almost 50 archives and collections spanning the history of the creative arts — including the archives of Stanley Kubrick, Tom Eckersley and Her Noise — in our new building these archives will be more open and accessible than ever.
Compared to the visitor engagement space for UAL’s Archives and Special Collections Centre in London College of Communication’s current building, this will be more than twice as big in the new building — facilitating major growth in access and the ways in which we can use these collections.
“Welcoming our local community into our spaces more than ever before.”
Steve Cross, Interim Provost of London College of Communication, said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to be accepting this generous award from the Wolfson Foundation towards our new home, just across the road from our current building. While we have been an active part of Elephant and Castle for more than 60 years now, with a busy programme of public events and exhibitions and lots of impactful community-based projects, our new building will allow us to welcome our local community into our spaces more than ever before. With the first two floors of the building open to the public, and now with this additional funding from the Wolfson Foundation supporting access to our Archives, I am excited for all of the possibilities that our future home will afford us.”
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said:
"We are delighted to support London College of Communication as they move to their new site. We are particularly pleased to be funding the archives and special collections within this ambitious project. These rich and diverse archives will be more accessible to researchers, students and the public — creating exciting opportunities for community engagement and shared discovery.”
Investing in London
This development of London College of Communication’s new building is part of UAL’s commitment to London and the creative industries, with the development in Elephant & Castle continuing the university’s investment in building projects across the capital.
In addition to increasing access to the building for visitors and local communities and acting as part of UAL’s investment in London, our new building will be specially designed to meet the needs of students now and into the future — allowing us to experiment further with new ways of working and keeping us at the forefront of new thinking and making through:
- Specialist spaces: Our courses push the boundaries within design, media and screen — and our new building has been carefully designed with the specific requirements of these courses in mind.
- Enhanced showcasing and events: Extensive gallery and display spaces, as well as the roof terrace with views to London, provide greater showcasing, event and retail opportunities.
- Aligning spaces and creating space for collaboration: Common areas and neighbourhoods will enable greater collaboration and community-building within and between courses and disciplines — aligning technical, teaching and self-directed learning spaces to ensure seamless integration.
- Sustainable spaces: We are targeting ‘Excellent’ for the Shell and Core, and ‘Outstanding’ for the fit-out, by the industry-standard ‘BREEAM’ sustainability assessment for buildings and infrastructure through material choices and energy management.
- Flexible, malleable design: As technologies and global challenges continue to change, a building that we can adapt and evolve will allow us to stay at the forefront of creative thinking, making and problem solving.
This award for London College of Communication’s building follows the Wolfson Foundation's generous grant towards the development of London College of Fashion's new home in East Bank back in 2023.
The Wolfson Foundation is an independent grant-making charity with a focus on research and education which aims to contribute to civil society by supporting high-quality projects in science, health, heritage, humanities and the arts. Since it was established in 1955, it has awarded over £1 billion (£2 billion in real terms) to around 14,000 projects throughout the UK, all on the basis of expert review.
- Find out more about London College of Communication’s future new home.
