Lion Green Road in Coulsdon, 157 homes built on a former car park for Croydon's own housing company, has won the RIBA Stirling Prize for 2026.

A housing scheme in Coulsdon has won the RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious architecture award. Lion Green Road was named the 2026 winner at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London on Thursday 15 October (RIBA).

It is a council-commissioned scheme of 157 homes in five brick blocks, built on a former car park off Lion Green Road. Mary Duggan Architects designed it, with RUFF Architects as delivery architect, for Brick by Brick (RIBA Journal). Brick by Brick is the house building company Croydon Council set up to build homes on smaller sites across the borough (Croydon Council newsroom).

What the judges picked

The scheme beat five other shortlisted buildings, including Renzo Piano’s Paddington Square and a new wing at Clare College, Cambridge (RIBA).

RIBA’s description of the winner includes:

  • 157 homes in five blocks, mixing privately owned and socially rented homes for Croydon Council
  • a sloping site that drops eight metres, which the blocks use rather than level out
  • every home dual-aspect, with balconies placed so they do not look straight into a neighbour’s
  • a new public path from Lion Green Road through to the parkland behind
  • play areas, a sensory trail and residents’ allotments among mature trees kept on the site
  • views towards the Surrey Iron Railway, a fragment of what RIBA calls the world’s first fully independent public railway

The blocks rise between four and seven storeys, and the homes are split equally between affordable and private, according to the RIBA Journal’s write-up from the shortlist in July. It says the scheme ended up with more homes than its original brief asked for, and had to protect a neighbouring scheduled monument linked to the old railway (RIBA Journal). RIBA puts the number of residents at 635.

What they said

Chris Williamson, RIBA President, chaired the jury. “At a time when we urgently need to deliver more homes, Lion Green Road shows that density can be achieved without compromising the quality of the places we create,” he said. He called it “a new kind of garden neighbourhood” (RIBA).

Mary Duggan spoke for her practice, RUFF Architects and the London Borough of Croydon. She said the project’s values “are not expressed through spectacle, but through the everyday experience of living in a secure, generous environment”.

Ian Murray, the Creative Industries Minister, congratulated the two practices on “council-commissioned housing” that “shows what’s possible when great design meets public need”.

The council’s own newsroom had not mentioned the prize by Saturday morning. The Executive Mayor’s weekly update on Friday covered the Cabinet meeting, CALAT, cycle training and fly-tipping (Croydon Council newsroom).

What it means for you

If you live in Coulsdon, the new path through the site to the parkland behind is public, not just for residents (RIBA Journal). The Surrey Iron Railway remains are the same scheduled monument the blocks were angled to look towards.

The more practical point is about what gets built next. The judges praised the scheme for packing in homes on an awkward suburban site without losing daylight, privacy or green space. When a denser scheme is proposed on your street, the planning application is where you have your say: our Croydon planning applications page explains how to find and comment on them.

If you are looking at the borough’s housing market more widely, our Croydon house prices page has the latest Land Registry figures.