Main Entrance Area - Barnsley Street NMHC / Image: thinkbuild
We are delighted to share that the Barnsley Street Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre (NMHC) in Tower Hamlets has no won two significant UK Awards: the Building Design Award at the Housing with Care Awards 2026, held at the Hilton Bankside, London on 5 June 2026 and the Community Benefit Award at the RICS London Awards, held on 15 July 2026.
Barnsley Street is England's first Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre — one of six national pilots chosen by NHS England — and the first UK application of the Trieste community mental health model: a recovery-oriented, low-threshold approach that brings clinical and community care together in a domestic, non-institutional setting. The centre is delivered by Look Ahead in partnership with the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and the Tower Hamlets Mental Health Alliance.
Our role was to translate the clinical ambition into spatial and atmospheric terms: a welcoming entrance, a central piazza with café and open tea-kitchen, shared gardens, and a tiered arrangement of spaces that quietly supports each person’s own path back to health. This is the active atmosphere approach in built form — architecture as an active part of recovery and daily life.
Barnsley Street NMHC — proposed ground floor and site plan, thinkbuild architecture BDA, 2024. / 3D orthographic project overview
The project was developed through an intensive interdisciplinary co-production process with clinical, estates, and community partners, and has been in operation for over ten months — drawing national attention including a visit from UKs Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock and a recent feature on the BBC’s One Show. It has been a privilege to play a part in it, and an honour to see the work recognised in both shortlists.
Dr Sheraz Ahmad, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead at the Barnsley Street NMHC, on site. / Image: thinkbuild
The RICS London win also qualifies Barnsley Street for the RICS UK Grand Final, with the national result to be announced at the Park Plaza Hotel, London on October 22, 2026. We'll be watching closely — fingers still crossed for that one.
Our warmest congratulations to everyone at ELFT, Look Ahead, and the Tower Hamlets Mental Health Alliance — especially to Dr Sheraz Ahmad, ELFT's Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead, whose clinical vision has been central throughout, and to Hannah Lawless, Look Ahead's Service Manager, who has guided the new service with great aplomb as Barnsley Street has blossomed.