17 dazzling London buildings just won a prestigious award for architecture – here’s where you can find each one

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) knows a good building when it sees one. Every year for the last 60 years it has handed out its National Awards for architecture to projects that not only look impressive, but that consider things like inclusivity, affordability, accessibility and safety.

To RIBA, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a footbridge, a school, a family home or a grand cultural centre – great design is great design. Now, it’s revealed its eclectic list of National Award winners 2026. 

London dominates the list this year, laying claim to 17 of the 32 winning schemes. Its winning buildings range from a new dance centre to a transformed Grade II-listed Edwardian department store and creative studios to affordable housing developments. 

Sadler’s Wells East, which opened in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in February last year, was among the winners. It was designed by architects O’Donnell and Tuomey and features a fully flexible 550-seat auditorium, six state-of-the-art dance studios, a restaurant and bar and a public performance space that hosts free dance classes, workshops and activities for the local community. 

Judges called it a ‘hugely confident new arts facility with a bold architectural design, that not only meets very exacting functional requirements, but successfully creates an icon here for local people’.  

Another familiar name on the list is the Natural History Museum, which picked up an award for its Urban Nature Project, reimagining of its five-acre gardens. Besides the greenery, the gardens (billed as a ‘living laboratory’) feature pavilions with a Nature Activity Centre and Garden Kitchen that provide vital learning spaces, a science lab, volunteer and gardener facilities and a visitor café. The RIBA judging panel commented that the space ‘elevates the museum’s external grounds from backdrop to living exhibition’. 

Elsewhere, awards went to the new Harold Moody Health Centre in Southwark for its ‘warmly human’ design; to the refurb of Grade-II listed Arding & Hobbs department store in Clapham Junction for its reconciling of ‘heritage, sustainability and contemporary modern life’; and to the transformation of Paddington Square, which RIBA said has significantly improved the daily experience of millions of rail users. 

Now, all the buildings are in the running to win the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize 2026. The shortlist will be revealed on July 16, with the final winner announced in October. After the Elizabeth line in 2024 and Bermondsey’s Appleby Blue Almshouse in 2025, could a London project pick up the prize for the third year running? 

Every London winner from the RIBA National Awards 2026  

• Arding & Hobbs by Stiff+Trevillion
  10 St John's Rd, SW11 1PN
• Canada Water Plot K1 by Morris+Company with White Ink  
  7 Roberts Close, SE16 7FR
• Harold Moody Health Centre by Morris+Company 
  60 Thurlow Street, SE17 2GN
• Highbury House and Studio by Maich Swift Architects 
  5 Highbury Crescent, N5 1RN
• Lion Green Road by Mary Duggan Architects (Design) with RUFF Architects (Delivery)
  16 Lion Green Road, CR5 2NL
• Norton Folgate by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Stanton Williams by Morris + Co, DSDHA and East 
  15 Norton Folgate, E1 6DB
• Paddington Square by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Paris) in collaboration with Adamson Associates 
  1 Paddington Square, W2 1DL
• Plashet Road by Newham, Levitt Bernstein (London)
  52E Plashet Rd, E13 0RQ
• Sadler's Wells East by O'Donnell + Tuomey (London)
  101 Carpenters Road, E20 2AR
• Smart's Place by David Kohn Architects (London)
  8 Smart's Place, Covent Garden, WC2B 5LW
• Space House by Squire and Partners, Atelier Ten, Pell Frischmann by Donald Insall Associates, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Gardiner and Theobald and BAM (London)
  One Kemble Street, Covent Garden, WC2B 4AN
• The Brentford Project - Phase 1 by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Howells and Maccreanor Lavington
  116 High Street, Brentford, TW8 8EW                          
• The Featherstone Building by Morris+Company 
  66 City Road, EC1Y 2AL
• The Tannery by Coffey Architects 
  1 New Tannery Way, SE1 5WS
• UCL East by Marshgate, Stanton Williams 
  7 Sidings Street, E20 2AE
• UCL One Pool Street by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands 
  1 Pool Street, E20 2AF
• Urban Nature Project by Natural History Museum, Feilden Fowles 
  Cromwell Road, South Kensington, SW7 5BD

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