Stratford Dream Crushed!

What could’ve been?

The plan to create an additional UCL campus in East London near the Olympic Park has collapsed.

In a statement released this morning, eternally be-tached Provost Malcolm Grant said that the University were “unable to conclude [their] agreement with the London Borough of Newham”.

He cited financial reasons for the termination of the “ambitious and extremely complex” project, stating that the two institutions “could not agree commercial terms”.

The news has come as a relief for some, as the plan would have displaced residents from 318 homes in the Carpenter’s housing estate in Stratford in order to create a new campus. The brilliantly named Carpenter’s Against Regeneration Plans, or CARP, called the decision a “victory”.

Their plight was supported by a number of UCL students, who held protests against the billion-pound design by organising an “occupy” style ‘sit-in at the Wilkin’s Garden Room. It is unclear whether this occupation had any effect on the final decision.

And such clever banners!

The University is not the only  London establishment to try and branch out from the city centre, with Imperial College intending to move all undergraduate students to a new campus on the site of the old Wood Lane BBC Building.

The Provost did not however totally admit defeat, concluding that he would “continue to work to make this ambitious project happen”.