From mighty oaks

The Royal Marsden works closely with the Institute of Cancer Research, located next door, enabling groundbreaking discoveries to directly impact patient outcomes using a “bench to bedside” methodology. The Oak Cancer Centre was designed in support of this process by meaningfully bringing researchers and clinicians together under one roof, encouraging interaction and collaboration, helping to advance research more effectively. This co-location embodies the inner spirit of both the Royal Marsden, the first hospital of its kind dedicated to the research and treatment of cancer. Before the Oak Cancer Centre was built, researchers were spread out across different buildings, which isolated their work. Now, with 400 researchers and 200 healthcare professionals, all in one place, there's much more interaction. The aim of the Research Centre is to bring together Royal Marsden and ICR researchers into a single facility in order to speed up the spread of research ideas and innovation. The majority of the centre is open plan to facilitate the sharing of ideas with appropriate numbers of offices, soundproofed booths and meeting rooms.

Levels 1, 3 & 4 with a small part of 2,  are the non-patient floors which are interconnected by their own private staircase. These floors are made up of Research, Offices, Staff Amenity, meeting rooms and external terraces for both staff enjoyment and fund raising. Typically, what we see in existing estates are staff crammed into back rooms or cordoned off parts of the café. The Oak Cancer centre seeks to disembark from this and provide high quality spaces which will not only attract new and motivate the existing workforce but actively work to recharge and reinvigorate staff to ensure that they perform at their very best; be that researching treatments or delivering them to the patients first hand.

What lies at the heart of this project are The Royal Marsden values. These are very clear and they recognise greatly that a patients experience whilst in hospital plays a vital role in their well-being and directly contributes to towards positive treatment outcomes. This clear vision creates a simple building concept, it’s about harnessing the sites natural assets creating a strong identity with a clear front door, which internally seeks to celebrates the colocation of clinical and research under one roof. The physical proximity between frontline staff, researchers, and patients in the Oak Cancer Centre, will speed up the translation of pioneering research into breakthroughs in treatment and care. In the Royal Marsden’s own words, the Oak Cancer Centre provides a reassuring environment that support the wellbeing, dignity, and privacy of their patients, providing an environment to match their excellent care.