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Ten Years of Iconic Docklands Campus Celebrated at Architecture End of Year Show

Thursday 24 June 2010

Vice Chancellor Patrick McGhee

Its ten years since the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, officially opened the architecturally-pioneering University of East London Docklands campus on his very first day in office - the site was the first new university campus to be built in London for over fifty years.

In autumn 1999, the University moved nearly two and half thousand students to the Royal Albert Dock, once the world's longest dock, but closed to commercial shipping since the 1980s, in a classic exercise of brown-field urban regeneration. Many thousands of students have passed through its doors since then but the buildings themselves remain as visually striking as ever.

The campus is designed with a high performance low-energy fresh air delivery system, allowing windows to be shut to keep out the noise from the City Airport opposite and is centred around a pedestrian square facing south onto the Dock. Its 384 student rooms are gathered in brightly-painted paired drums along the dockside in front of the main academic buildings. In 2001, it was short listed as Building of the Year by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, competing with architectural achievements worldwide.

Ted Cullinan, the architect who designed the campus, was presented with an award and officially opened the showcase for final year architecture students at the University’s School of Architecture and Visual Arts. He said of the Docklands campus project: “it was a lovely job to do, on a truly marvellous site”. 

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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