'Silicon Green' of Shepherd's Bush: Plans to create west London technology equivalent of Old Street's Silicon roundabout

The council wants to create a "beacon of innovation" around the Silicon Green of Shepherd's Bush.

Ambitious plans for a “West Tech” counterweight to the digital districts around Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout in east London are unveiled today.

Labour-run Hammersmith and Fulham council wants to create a “beacon of innovation” around the “Silicon Green” of Shepherd’s Bush.

The west side of the capital has been largely overlooked in the boom that has turned London into Europe’s pre-eminent tech city within a decade.

Council leader Stephen Cowan said collaboration with academia and the biotech, digital and creative sectors could make the borough Britain’s equivalent of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where top universities Harvard and MIT are based.

The idea is to be west London's equivalent of Old Street's Silicon Roundabout.

Imperial College London is investing £3 billion in a new postgraduate campus north of Shepherd’s Bush with a focus on commercial applications for advanced blue-sky research.

An industrial strategy document launched by the council today, called Economic Growth for Everyone, outlines measures to boost enterprise, innovation and skills. These include a “growth partnership” with Imperial to support local tech and creative businesses, possible business rate reductions, and new career development plans for science and maths teachers.

Mr Cowan said: “We are already home to major international businesses, alongside a thriving start-up and small business community.

“We want to create the right conditions for these firms to flourish.”

Professor Alice Gast, president of Imperial College London, said: “At our White City Campus, we are building a dynamic environment where academics work alongside corporate and community partners to drive discovery, promote entrepreneurship, inspire young people, and develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time.”

Nick McCooke, chief business officer of diagnostics company DNAe, based in the Ugli campus in Wood Lane, said: “The location has been perfect not only for attracting local talent but also to act as our global HQ: we have facilities in San Diego, USA, so access to Heathrow as well as into the City and to Imperial is ideal.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in