Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has purchased Canal House, also known as the Battleship Building, as it continues work towards the redevelopment of St Mary’s Hospital.
The £20m acquisition has been funded in full by NHS England’s RAAC remediation programme, which provides support to trusts dealing with RAAC-related building problems.
Separately, seven hospitals most severely affected by RAAC are being replaced through the New Hospital Programme.
The trust said the building will provide additional space for a range of functions, including virtual care services and corporate and administrative teams, helping to release space in the main hospital buildings for clinical care.
Canal House will provide permanent accommodation for teams currently preparing to move into temporarily leased Capital House, near the junction of Praed Street and Edgware Road.
The moves are expected to take place in the coming weeks, freeing space for clinical services affected by the closure of the main St Mary’s outpatient building.
Canal House, a Grade II-listed Modernist building, was converted to offices in 2000 and has previously been occupied by Virgin Group and Monsoon.
It provides around 1,000 spaces across eight floors.
The new St Mary’s Hospital
The purchase comes as the Trust progresses plans for a new St Mary’s Hospital, with an accelerated delivery date of 2036.
The outpatient building is being closed because of RAAC in its roof.
RAAC was identified in the building at the end of 2025, prompting immediate measures including the closure of its top floor.
The Trust said the structural issues are too expensive to repair and the building will ultimately be demolished.
Designed by HOK, a global interdisciplinary design firm, alongside development manager Stanhope and masterplan architects Allies and Morrison, the proposals would consolidate services currently spread across multiple ageing buildings into a single hospital.
The trust recently unveiled the latest designs for its planned new St Mary's Hospital in Paddington as the second phase of public consultation closed on 17 July.
The new 800-bed trauma and general hospital would be around 30 storeys.
This new hospital would aim to deliver modern healthcare facilities while supporting the wider regeneration of the Paddington site.
Feedback gathered during the consultation will inform the next stage of design development before a further round of public engagement takes place this autumn, ahead of a planning application expected in spring 2027.
The trust is also preparing a wider update on its estates strategy, which will include a programme of major investments over the next three years, alongside plans for managing the reprovision of clinics currently located in the main outpatient building.
The update is expected to include plans for restoring the St Mary’s birth centre, which was temporarily relocated to Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital to allow antenatal services to continue following the closure of space within the outpatient building.
Outpatient and antenatal appointments at St Mary’s are currently continuing as normal.
