"Collaboration is at the heart of the East Bank project and with the opening of our new campus for London College of Fashion, UAL we are forging partnerships and creating new opportunities and connections with the schools, communities, and industries of East London and beyond. Creativity, the lifeblood of our institution, has the potential to tackle our most pressing challenges and, in doing so, transform lives. Through East Bank, we can reach and engage more people with this vision than ever before.” - James Purnell, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of the Arts London
Wednesday 1 November 2023 marked the official opening of LCF s new campus on East Bank - the UK’s newest cultural quarter at the heart of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The opening event marked the start of a new chapter in the college’s 117-year history, bringing together all LCF undergraduate and postgraduate courses under one roof, for the very first time.
The event exemplified LCF’s long-standing ethos of harnessing fashion, design and creative practice as a force for positive social change. It also heralded LCF’s future in the east London community forging more partnerships and creating connections with east London schools, communities and industry than ever before. Guests and colleagues were able to reflect on memorable moments from past LCF graduate shows, runways, industry panels and exhibitions with showcases of courses from across LCF’s three schools; School of Design and Technology, Fashion Business School and School of Media and Communication.
As industry guests, friends of the college, and LCF staff gathered in the campus' grand entrance, the evening began with speeches from Professor Andrew Teverson; Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of London College of Fashion, UAL, Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries and Toyin Gbomedo - artist in residence for SEEDED, an East Bank partner residency programme supported by Foundation for Future London and the City of London Corporation.
"We look forward to an exciting new chapter in London College of Fashion’s 117-year history. We celebrate the tremendous hard work of everybody who has helped design and realise this remarkable new building, bringing our degree level staff and students together in a state-of-the-art learning environment that’s as beautiful as it is sustainable. We believe that creativity is never a solitary endeavour, but always a community effort, and this is what we hope to be at East Bank; part of the vibrant and talented community surrounding our new home.” - Professor Andrew Teverson; Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of London College of Fashion, UAL
Attendees were then welcomed by a performance by musical artist and LCF alumnus Kojey Radical, accompanied by a 60 strong choir with 15-year-old featured soloist, Angel, of east London based UD Music. The wider choir includes voices from east London groups: Flames Collective, New Young Voice Collection, Sing Tower Hamlets, Filament Choir and Some Voices.
Celebrations continued throughout the building at East Bank, with street food and refreshments supplied by UAL Catering across different floors in the building. LCF's brand new 10th floor cafeteria space became the final hub of entertainment with freestyle dance performances by a collective of multidisciplinary east London artists and choreographed by Niquelle LaTouche. The performance was set to the music of east London producer, composer, singer, dancer and DJ, Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, MBE.
Tours of LCF’s brand new public-facing exhibition, Designed for Life also took place in addition to an exclusive in-situ Curator Talk with Dr Michael McMillan in conversation with Dr Leila Nassereldein, Pallavi Chamarty, Omalara Obanishola, Dave Sohanpal and Anh Tran.
To see guests and colleagues through to the closing hours, sets by East Bank partner and neighbour BBC Music Studios’ DJ Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 6 Music), DJ Limelight (BBC Asian Network) and DJ CassKid (BBC Radio 1Xtra) brought the dancefloor to life.