Practice has transformed upper floors of grade II*-listed building in London’s West End into office space
Buckley Gray Yeoman has completed its refurbishment of the grade II*-listed Heal’s department store on London’s Tottenham Court Road.
The practice has transformed the upper storeys of the historic furniture store into 140,000sq ft of office space and its ground and lower ground floors into new retail space for Heal’s.
The scheme has been designed for developer General Projects and investor KKR with the project team also including Shoreditch based practice White Red and furniture designers Galvin Brothers.
The building consists of eight interlinked blocks, each with their own character and floorplates, including the first Heal’s warehouse built in the 19th century.
The team’s design has sought to retain the character of the buildings, working with the existing fabric while stitching together the site’s distinct elements.
People working in the building’s offices will enter through a new cafe and reception area which has been created in former loading bays. External breakout areas have also been created in a reinstated internal route running from Alfred Mews to Torrington Place and a landscaped courtyard.
Throughout the office spaces, modern fixtures and fittings have been stripped back to reveal original elements such as soffit coffers and beams, maximising ceiling heights while revealing the building’s historic features.
Buckley Gray Yeoman managing director Oliver Bayliss said the scheme was an “exercise in sensitive tinkering that stitched together a complex set of buildings that are brimming with character.”
He added: “The interiors took their cue from the original features that we discovered along the way.
“Feature staircases, decorative plaster and machinery from the original workshops were painstakingly restored to their former glory.
“Outside, the streetscape on Alfred Mews has been transformed with a new entrance that draws people off Tottenham Court Road into what was a forgotten cul-de-sac; that is now buzzing with life.”
Heal’s was founded in 1810 by John Harris Heal and became one of the capital’s best known furniture suppliers by the end of the 19th century. It moved into its current location in 1940.
No comments yet