BW has been appointed to manage the fit-out of English National Ballet and English National Ballet School’s new joint home in Canning Town, East London. The 93,000 sq ft development will be located at London City Island, a new neighbourhood from Ecoworld Ballymore.

English National Ballet and English National Ballet School’s new joint purpose-built home at London City Island brings together one of the world’s leading ballet companies with a world-renowned ballet school. The new building will create a centre that combines state-of-the-art training, rehabilitation, and teaching facilities, seven stage-sized rehearsal studios, and a unique production space unrivalled in the capital.

Designed by leading architects Glenn Howells Architects, the new building will include:

  • A theatre-sized production studio with five-storey fly tower for the development and rehearsal of productions and creation of new commissions;
  • Seven large studios for rehearsals and teaching;
  • A health suite including a gym, pilates studio, hydrotherapy pool and rehabilitation facilities;
  • Digital infrastructure which will allow both organisations to capture and share work and engage with audiences around the UK and the rest of the world;
  • Dedicated Engagement spaces to further English National Ballet’s work with the local community and wellbeing programme including its flagship Dance for Parkinson’s programme;
  • Dedicated music room and space for the English National Ballet Philharmonic to rehearse on site;
  • Open spaces and architectural features that will create a transparent, open, welcoming environment, sharing the creative process with the public, inside and outside the building

Joining BW on the project is Glenn Howell Architects; Hydrock as M&E; and Pulse Associates as Project Manager and Quantity Surveyors.

Artistic Director of English National Ballet, Tamara Rojo CBE said: “We will have state of the art spaces to allow us to further create ground-breaking new work and continue to develop our artform. It will be a space we will be able to share with other artists and artforms, and will allow us to be even more open and welcoming to our local communities and audience.”

During the second phase of the fit-out project at the English National Ballet Roché were tasked to install a 1-hour fire-rated security shutter to the ballet’s loading bay door.

Working closely with main contractors BW, they were able to design a solution that fixed to the adjacent blockwork pillar and with the shutter housing facing inwards to help account for an external pipe outlet. Due to the number of daily operations required we also installed the shutter with a three-phase motor supply.

Completed on time and to a high standard, the loading bay was effectively secured and linked into the building fire alarm system so that it would automatically descend in the event of an alarm signal.

English National Ballet recently announced it had been successful in its stage two application to Arts Council England’s Capital Large Grants Programme, funded by the National Lottery. The Capital Large Grant is for a £3 million investment for English National Ballet and English National Ballet School’s new home at London City Island, Canning Town, a new neighbourhood from Ecoworld Ballymore.