Estates News Updates

Four renowned landscape practices have been shortlisted for a design competition organised by the Estates Division Capital Development team.

The plan is to transform Portugal Street, to reflect and enhance LSE's reputation as a world-leading university. With particular attention to quality, extent and flexibility of spaces, access, navigation, circulation, sightlines, materials and amenities.

In line with LSE’s Estates Vision, the core objectives are:

• Continue to deliver a high-quality public realm within a distinctive LSE ‘university quarter’

• To create a vibrant and animated campus which enhances the student/staff and visitor experience, including active frontages, permeable ground planes and high-quality public realm.

The shortlisted designs will be on display in the Great Hall, Marshall Building from Tuesday 11 November to Friday 21 November 2025 and students and staff are encouraged to visit and vote for their preferred scheme.

An international competition to overhaul 61 Aldwych into a pioneering academic hub has been won by Feix&Merlin and Alison Brooks Architects.

The winning design will transform the 17,600m² building on the corner of Aldwych and Kingsway, providing a 'new front door' to LSE from Aldwych.  Find out more....

The Capital Development team have been extremely busy during the Summer period with projects on campus.  There are also many ongoing projects, so we thought it was a good time to provide an update in this newsletter

The final power shutdown for the Lionel Robbins Building Decarbonisation works is now planned to take place on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September 2025.

The power shutdown initially planned for 20 September had to be rearranged due to issues encountered with the generator which caused instability of the power supply to the building. 

This led to the rescheduling of UKPN works, now due to be completed by 26 September.

Thank you for your continued patience.

The old BT direct dial number for the Emergency Estates Division Helpdesk 020 7831 8713 will cease to exist from 15 August 2025, although the short code (ext 2444) remains unchanged.  

With immediate effect please use 020 7955 6090 (ext 2444) to report any emergency issues.  The general enquiries number remains unchanged as 020 7955 7956 (ext 7956).

For all non-urgent requests we recommend you use the self-service portal. Using this method will allow both you and us to record and track your request in the most efficient way. 

LSE staff can also use the Planon App to raise Estates Jobs such as Maintenance and Portering requests from their mobile, and check on the progress of their requests.  Go to the App Store or Google Play and download the app called 'Planon' with a blue letter 'p' on a white background as the icon.  Instructions on how to install and activate the app are here....

LSE has been granted £2.27m of funding under the Public Services Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) launched by Salix on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)

Building works to decarbonise Lionel Robbins Building (LRB) will commence on 23 June.

The works to the heating system include the replacement of the existing gas boilers with electric Air Source Heat Pumps on the roof of the building. Key dates are displayed below and also listed here (pdf).

Crane lifts are scheduled to take place at the junction between John Watkins Plaza and Portugal Street on the dates below:

Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 August

Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August 

Saturday 6 September (with 13 September as back up in case of bad weather)

Power shutdowns are scheduled to take place on the dates below:

Saturday 21 June (Full day including remedial works on lifts) 

Saturday 28 June (Full day including remedial works on lifts) 

Saturday 6 September (Full day) 

Saturday 20 September (Half day)

From 26 July for up to two weeks, works will take place on the roof which may be noisy and cause some disruption. LRB staff affected by the works may book hot desks in Clement House (CLM) or Pankhurst House (PAN). The current users of LRB and those using hot desks in CLM or PAN are encouraged to work remotely where possible, to ensure that hot desks are available for all staff that need to be on campus.

Hot desks can be booked via Condeco. Please find the guidance at the link Booking a desk at LSE.

Meeting rooms in CLM and PAN can be booked via the Condeco plug in, when sending meeting invitations in Outlook. Alternative meeting spaces can be booked via LSE Resource Booker.

Should any assistance be required with booking via Condeco, please contact the Estates Systems Manager, Daniel Print on 020 7955 7912 or d.print@lse.ac.uk  

Should any LRB user require adjustments in CLM or PAN, please contact Capital Development Project Manager, Elena Forti at e.forti@lse.ac.uk.

Regular updates will be provided in due course.

The LSE Estates Division have achieved the ‘We invest in people Gold’ accreditation.

This incredible accomplishment is a direct result of everyone’s hard work and dedication.  The Investors in People assessment recognized this, and we're thrilled with this achievement.

It's a significant milestone, as only 28% of organisations achieve Gold accreditation, highlighting our strong culture of mutual support and commitment to making our workplace even better.  We're especially proud to be one of only two University Estates Departments in the UK to hold this prestigious recognition.

The We invest in people assessment gave us valuable feedback, we were especially delighted to hear that the vast majority of our people feel respected, valued and appreciated for the work they do. We're committed to continuous improvement and are using the feedback to develop recommendations and an action plan to drive further positive changes and keep moving forward.

Julian Robinson, Director of Estates added

“We are LSE’s largest Service Division with the most diverse staff who are valued by the School community. We are only as good as the people we employ and to have achieved this gold standard makes me incredibly proud. It is my privilege to lead this amazing team! Thank you to all Estates staff for the great work they do and to those who took part in the survey and interviews with the assessor and especially to Allan Blair, Jas Sidhu and Davinder Ratra for steering us through the very tough assessment." 

What do students think about the Estate? Evolving LSE's campus to meet students' needs

Studies on student perceptions of campus quality were undertaken in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023, and in 2012 research on what student aspirations for campus study space, were undertaken. Find out how the School addressed the complex challenge of evolving the campus to meet students' wants and needs.