The former Edwardian furniture warehouse on Wilson Street and its offices on Eldon Street connect around the Red Lion, a corner pub in the City of London. The L-shaped complex is sandwiched between listed heritage assets – St Mary Moorfields Catholic Church to the east and Arup Associates’ celebrated 1 Finsbury Avenue offices to the north.
Difficult internal transitions between the former warehouse and offices have been smoothed out to create an inspiring set of adaptable workspaces. Celebrating the character of the existing building, the interior has been stripped back to reveal original features – brick walls and wrought steel stairs, cast iron columns and even hastily inserted WW11 bomb damage repairs. New exposed high-level MEP services are carefully configured around the structure.
The fine masonry façades have been cleaned and existing glazing replaced with high-performance slimline metal windows, combined with a new zinc mansard roof at the sixth floor and a glazed pavilion above. A new entrance and courtyard on Wilson Street provide access to the ground and lower ground offices, basement cycle storage and end of trip staff facilities.
All the fabric with its embodied carbon has been retained and the building extended by around 1,000sqft. On the east and north façades, window sills have been dropped to finished floor level to increase daylighting to the deep plan floors and the environmental performance boosted to EPC ‘A’. A green roof and landscaped terrace considerably improve local ecology and provide relaxing space for the occupants.
