Willmott Dixon has reached the midway stage of the £30 million regeneration of the former Barnes Hospital site in south west London, where a new NHS mental health facility and a specialist school are being built on a single co-located campus.

Commissioned by South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust and LocatED, an arm's-length body of the Department for Education, the project was procured via the Southern Construction Framework. Both buildings are due to open in 2027.

To mark the milestone, Willmott Dixon hosted a summer celebration with the Trust and LocatED, bringing together project partners, community members, trustees and long-standing supporters for a first-hand look at progress. Attendees included the Mayor of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Cllr Nancy Baldwin, and Sarah Olney MP, who highlighted the scheme’s benefits for local health, education and wellbeing.

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Richard Poulter, managing director for Willmott Dixon in the South: "Bringing an NHS mental health facility and a school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs together on one site is a forward-looking model, and it sits squarely in two sectors where we have deep experience. Reaching the halfway point with both buildings now taking shape gives the Trust, LocatED, the Beckmead Trust and the local community a clear sense of what these facilities will offer when they open next year. It shows what collaboration between health, education and construction partners can achieve for a community."

The NHS building will accommodate a range of community mental health services that relocated from Barnes to the Trust’s Livingston House facility in Teddington in 2023. On reopening, expanded services will run from both sites to enhance accessibility across the borough. The scheme forms part of the Trust’s wider £280m programme investing in mental health facilities across south west London.

The school, London River Academy, will provide 90 places for pupils aged 7 to 19 with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs and will be operated by The Beckmead Trust.