Maggie's at The Royal Free construction – Q&A

1. How will the construction impact services?

No services at the Royal Free Hospital or Maggie’s will be impacted by the construction work. 

The Maggie’s Royal Free Hospital interim centre will remain open to support people living with cancer throughout the build. 

For more information, visit Maggie's at the Royal Free or call us on 0203 981 4840.
 

2. How long will construction take and when will it begin?

The construction works will begin on 25 October and will take approximately 18 months.

The centre is expected to be completed in Summer 2023. 

Meanwhile, if you need cancer support, please follow the signs for Maggie’s inside the Royal Free Hospital, call 0203 981 4840 or email us at royalfree@maggies.org.

3. Will the construction of the new hospital affect residents in the area?

Yes, but there are measures in place to mitigate against the contributing factors.

There will be a variety of measures in place such as:

• The Guide for Contractors Working in Camden feeds into the CMP and covers basics such as the colour of the hoarding (White), to the gradient of footpaths around the site perimeter
• The CMP covers working hours, quiet hours, community liaison, Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), how we manage deliveries, site cleanliness, site behaviour, and nuisance, such as noise, dust, and vibration
• CCS is a scheme that has been running for several years and was set up to raise standards within construction. It covers the following areas: taking care of the environment, cleanliness, and being considerate, a good neighbour, respectful, safe, responsible and accountable.
   

4. Will there be a garden?

Maggie’s believes that gardens can have an amazing, positive effect on health and wellbeing.

Each of our centres has a beautiful garden designed alongside the building to ensure a strong connection between the outside and inside space.

We have worked with gardeners such as Dan Pearson, Sarah Price and Piet Oldoulf to create landscapes with planting schemes that add colour, scent and interest throughout the year. 

The building at Maggie's at The Royal Free is nestled into a planted garden to the rear and extends at the front to provide quiet seating as well as connecting to existing walkways on the hospital campus.

An additional garden will be at roof level to create a serene enclosure for visitors, a peaceful outdoor retreat that aligns with the canopies of the surrounding foliage.

The landscape has been designed by leading designers, Martha Schwarz Partners.
 

5. How many trees will be removed?

Much of the existing planting, will need to be removed during construction for foundation work on the buildings and underpinning of the existing boundary wall.

However, the landscape scheme will be a significant improvement to the existing condition, replacing what is removed with more plants, shrubs and trees.
 

6. How much noise and disruption will there be during construction?

We are committed to minimising disruption to patients, visitors, staff and local residents wherever possible.

A Construction Management Plan has been developed with the Royal Free London and approved by Camden Council.
 

7. What happens to patients during construction?

The Royal Free Hospital will remain fully operational during construction which is essential for patients’ continuity of care.
 

8. Will there be car parking facilities on site?

The Maggie’s centre is a ‘stand-alone’ building within the hospital estate.

As such, the construction site will operate independently of the hospital, with their own designated parking spaces and delivery points.

We will ensure that appropriate parking facilities for patients, visitors and staff will remain accessible throughout construction. The multi-storey car park for patients and visitors will not be impacted.
 

9. Will the development generate more traffic on surrounding roads?

It is unlikely that the development of the Maggie’s centre will increase traffic on the surrounding roads as the service will cater to existing local cancer patients, their families and friends.

Any increase in traffic will be the result of more patients being able to access cancer services from the hospital and the additional support of the Maggie’s centre.

As Maggie’s already has a presence within the hospital the existing staff will not add pressure to staff parking / travel requirements.

In addition, measures are being introduced to encourage staff and, to a lesser extent, visitors to the hospital to travel by more sustainable modes of transport.

Traffic and vehicle movement during the construction period will be controlled in line with the Construction Management Plan.
 

10. How will the trust work with local residents and the wider community?

We are committed to keeping you informed and updated on our plans. There will be regular updates via the Royal Free Hospital and Maggie’s websites, as well as regular events to update all stakeholders on construction progress.

• watering / damping down during demolition to reduce dust
• implementation of a Construction Management Plan (CMP) that has been developed with the Royal Free London and approved by Camden Council.
   

11. Who will manage the build and how can we contact them?

Name: Clare Hartley-Marjoram, Sir Robert McAlpine
Address: Maggie's At The Royal Free, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG
Email: clare.hartley-marjoram@srm.com
Phone: 07860 592789
 

12. What will be the carbon impact of the Maggie’s Build?

The Maggie’s build will have a low carbon impact.

The building’s fabric thermal performance, systems choice and air tightness result in the building’s carbon emissions achieving an 18% improvement over Part L 2013 baseline.

The modelled annual heat demand is 12.8 kWh/m²/year, this is aligned with LETI’s (London Energy Transformation Initiative) guidance that space heating demand should be below 15 kWh/m²/year when targeting Net Zero Operational Carbon.

Furthermore, the inclusion of an air source heat pump results in the building being all electric, allowing the building to benefit from ongoing decarbonisation of the electricity grid, resulting in improvement to the building’s operational carbon performance over time.
 

13. Will there be disruption to the car parking provision for staff, patients and visitors during the build?

There will be no disruption to general patient/visitor parking which recently moved to our new public car park.

During preparation works for construction there will be some temporary disruption to our haemophilia and kidney care centre patient’s dedicated parking spaces outside the haemophilia centre; parking will be provided within the general staff car park for a short period of time.

There may be some temporary disruption to access and a number of bays isolated from parking (circa 4-8 at a time). Traffic marshalling to maintain flow as well as emergency access will be in place.

During construction there will be some temporary disruption to access to facilitate large deliveries of materials.

Traffic marshalling to maintain flow as well as emergency access will be in place and traffic may be held for a few minutes to facilitate vehicle movements.
 

Supporting you during this time

Our interim centre is still open and will continue to support people with cancer, their family and friends throughout the build. 

If you need cancer support, call 0203 981 4840 or email us at royalfree@maggies.org.