Balfour was shortlisted alongside Kier and Sir Robert McAlpine for the project six years ago. But the scheme at Stanmore hit the buffers when the Government launched a review of PFI.

The firm has now started on site after securing a £35m contract to design and build the first phase of the redevelopment at the Brockley Hill site after a funding rethink.

The project is part funded by the Department of Health and land sale receipts when land to the west of the site is sold for a residential development.

Following demolition of an old patient building on the site piling has started and will continue through to early next year across the site.

The new hospital will be the first stage in the Trust’s redevelopment of the site, providing a new main entrance for the hospital and the re-provision of inpatient accommodation.

Balfour will build a new 123 in-patient ward along with imaging department, landscaping as well as café and retail facilities.

UCL currently occupies eight buildings on the RNOH site which will be replaced by biomedical engineering hub

Later it will also build a biomedical engineering hub for University College London to the north of the site and a special accommodation block for relatives known as Princess Eugenie House to the west of the site.