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Relocation of UCL IoO and Moorfields to new King’s Cross site gets green light to progress

14 February 2020

Plans for project Oriel – the building of a new world-leading eye-care and research centre in central London – have just been given the go-ahead by a special ‘Committee in Common’ (14 NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups from in and around London).

Artists' rendering of Oriel

The new integrated eye health centre will be based next to St Pancras Way, just north of King’s Cross and close to UCL’s Bloomsbury campus. It is being planned and funded jointly by Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Moorfields Eye Charity and UCL, and is due to open in 2026.

The decision to move to the next stage of planning the new centre comes after extensive public and stakeholder consultation involving around 3,500 people, as well as an architectural competition to design the new buildings, which was won by Penoyre & Prasad.

Professor Andrew Dick, Director of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, said:

““This decision represents another important step in our transformational joint project. By bringing together UCL’s powerful research base with the world-class healthcare delivery of Moorfields, we will be able to better develop new treatments, and improve both patient outcomes and the staff and student experience.”


The business plan for the new centre can now move towards the final approval stage, the outcome of which is expected in 2021/22. At the same time, UCL is working with Moorfields Eye Hospital and Moorfields Eye Charity to raise £100 million from philanthropy towards the cost of Oriel. 

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