Merck is continuing with its plans to build a major new research centre in Kings Cross.

The $1.3 billion research centre designed by AHMM would occupy the Belgrove House site, currently home to Access Storage and the King’s Cross post office and opposite the entrance to Kings Cross Station. The 10-storey, 25,000m2 London Discovery Research Centre would employ 800 clinical researchers and office staff in its laboratories.

Merck - known in Europe as MSD - has agreed commercial terms with the Precis Group, who own Access Storage and the building, and plans to create a specialised life-sciences centre for research into diseases of ageing and human biology.

King's Cross is already home to the Francis Crick Institute.

AHMM’s proposals for Belgrove House are being brought forward in tandem with a linked affordable housing development provided at the nearby Acorn House site. The proposals are currently out to public consultation ahead of a planning submission later in 2020. it is hoped the new centre would be open by 2025.