On The Up in North Acton

Woodward Halls student accommodation opens

A 19th storey building which had been nominated as one of the ugliest has been officially opened.

The University of London’s halls of residence - the Woodward Buildings in North Acton - offers self-catered accommodation for 693 undergraduate Imperial college students.

The Woodward halls are named after Professor Joan Woodward, the second ever woman professor at Imperial College who pioneered research in organisational structures and analytical frameworks.

It was an all-female team who were centre stage amongst partners involved in the process at the ceremony.

Among those present to unveil a plaque marking the official opening of the hall were College President Professor Alice P. Gast, the Mayor of Ealing Harbajhan Kaur Dheer and the Student Union President Lucinda Sandon Allum. Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, Dr Rupa Huq, was also on hand as was Councillor Kate Crawford and Imperial College’s Professor Dot Griffiths.

Rupa Huq commented ''It’s great to see this stunning new accommodation built to a very high specification by the housebuilder Berkley and being launched by an all-female team including a female student biologist in Lucinda.

“As a woman academic sociologist I’m exceptionally pleased to see it being named after a woman academic.

''Woodward is an important part of the regeneration of the North Acton station area which was a bit of an industrial wasteland but has been transformed into a vibrant community of 1,600 students from London institutions including Imperial. The area north of the A40 is definitely on the up.''

27th October 2015