VIRTUS Data Centres has announced plans to develop LONDON19 in Slough. The new facility will add 32.5MW of IT load to the company's UK estate.
The project marks VIRTUS's next phase of expansion at the Slough Trading Estate, a site long associated with the UK data centre market. Once completed, LONDON19 will take the company's operational and committed UK capacity beyond the more than 300MW it already reports.
LONDON19 is intended to meet demand for data centre space in London's western corridor, where operators face pressure on land and power availability. The site has already secured planning permission through the Slough Trading Estate Simplified Planning Zone.
SEGRO will develop the powered shell for the facility, with construction due to begin after design approval. The development will include a roof-level plant deck and is expected to achieve a BREEAM "Excellent" rating.
The data centre will include advanced cooling systems, sustainable construction materials, and provision for the future export of waste heat for local use. These features reflect the growing emphasis on energy use, heat management, and community impact as demand rises from cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads.
Slough remains one of Britain's most established data centre locations, supported by fibre connectivity, power infrastructure, and proximity to London. For operators with existing campuses in the area, expanding within that cluster can be more practical than seeking entirely new sites in a constrained planning and energy environment.
VIRTUS is part of the ST Telemedia Global Data Centres group and describes itself as the UK's largest data centre provider. The business has built much of its footprint around major availability zones near London, where hyperscale cloud groups, large enterprises, and other customers continue to seek capacity.
The latest build also extends VIRTUS's relationship with SEGRO, the industrial property group behind the Slough Trading Estate. That partnership is central to development at the campus, where planning certainty and existing infrastructure can shorten the route from approval to delivery.
Adam Eaton, Chief Executive Officer of VIRTUS Data Centres, outlined the rationale for the new facility.
"We are delighted to expand our Slough campus with the addition of LONDON19, further strengthening our ability to support customers seeking scalable, resilient, and sustainable data centre capacity in London's western corridor. This development builds on our long-standing relationship with SEGRO and enables us to deliver critical power and IT capacity aligned with customer demand. By embedding sustainability considerations from the outset, including provision for future waste heat utilisation, LONDON19 reflects our focus on delivering flexible, future-ready infrastructure that supports the UK's digital economy while minimising environmental impact," Eaton said.
Market pressure
The announcement comes as data centre operators across Europe respond to rising requirements linked to AI systems and more intensive computing loads. New facilities are increasingly being designed to handle higher rack densities and more demanding cooling needs while meeting stricter scrutiny over energy efficiency and environmental standards.
In and around London, the challenge is especially acute because land, grid connections, and planning pathways can all limit the pace of new supply. Established campuses in places such as Slough therefore remain strategically important for operators looking to add capacity without moving far from one of Europe's largest concentrations of digital infrastructure customers.
VIRTUS said it would continue engaging with the local community as part of its presence at the trading estate. The company also said it had made provision for the future use of waste heat, a feature that has become more common in data centre development as operators look for ways to reduce broader environmental impact.
For SEGRO, the project adds another data centre development at a site that has hosted the sector for more than two decades. The property owner said the combination of infrastructure, power, and planning arrangements in Slough continued to attract operators seeking expansion in a market where options are limited.
"VIRTUS is one of Europe's leading data centre operators, and we are pleased to be extending our long-standing relationship through the delivery of this new facility at the Slough Trading Estate. The Trading Estate has been at the centre of the UK's data centre market for more than 20 years, and the scale of infrastructure, power availability, and planning certainty we have established there, alongside a strong focus on sustainability and positive engagement with the local community, continues to support customers like VIRTUS as they expand in a highly constrained environment," Pilsworth said.