Willmott Dixon wins second Queen Mary job in 12 months

Willmott Dixon has secured a £48.8m contract from Queen Mary University London to redevelop its School of Business and Management in Tower Hamlets.

The seven-storey, 6,700 square metre facility is scheduled to complete in 2027.

It will replace an existing building deemed unfit for purpose and provide flexible learning and teaching spaces for the business school, Willmott Dixon said in a statement today (11 June).

The tier one contractor will work with Nicholas Hare Architects to deliver the job for the client. The scheme also includes landscaped terraces and public green spaces around the development site.

This is Willmott Dixon’s second project for the university in under a year. In 2024, it was appointed to retrofit and extend the Informatics and Technology Learning building in Bethnal Green.

That job – valued at £14.7m by data intelligence firm Glenigan – includes the addition of two storeys to the original building to accommodate more students and provide facilities for a centre of excellence in computer science.

Richard Poulter, Willmott Dixon’s managing director in the South, said working on both projects simultaneously would create “significant collaborative benefits” for the university.

Professor Colin Bailey, president and principal of Queen Mary, said the latest project was a “bold investment” in the university’s mission to deliver academic excellence and increase access to opportunity.

Professor Mike Noon, dean of the School of Business and Management, said the new building would benefit students lacking access to ideal study conditions at home.

Source: Willmott Dixon press release