Plough Road, Battersea SW11

A sucessful collaboration between two firms of architects, this significant brown field regeneration project is about perseverance and determination over a period of 18 years by many local stakeholders. The original St Peter’s Church on Plough Road, Battersea was consecrated in 1876 but was destroyed by fire in 1970.

After the fire, the buildings left on the site comprised a temporary multipurpose church, a community centre and a terrace of unoccupied Victorian residential properties over shops and a small children’s nursery. Also located on the site was a vicarage and the remaining listed church hall.

Critical to the success of redevelopment was St. Peter’s commitment to the community of the Winstanley Housing Estate, an area of significant social deprivation.

The triangular site presented challenges. The housing comprising 69 flats and a new vicarage occupies the northern end of the site with courtyard separating it from the new church to the south. Planning requirements led to a full basement with 56 parking spaces.

The brief for the church was to create a worship space for up to 300 people with a separate community centre for functions and seating for up to 120 people. The worship space was placed at first floor level to take advantage of higher ceilings whilst administrative of offices and seminar rooms were located on the ground floor.

The planar glazed links gave the opportunity to introduce coloured glass into the worship space. Drawing on the tradition of stained glass in a medieval church, the design by Ptolemy Mann is an abstraction of fish scales that evolved into the symbolism of the Pentecost. The warmer colours at the southern end of the building represent re, a Christian symbol of the flames in which the Holy Spirit came to earth. The cooler colours as the building recede represent water, linking St. Peter the fisherman to the building.

The theme of St. Peter is picked up again in the Richard Kindersley wrought iron gates to the courtyard. The design incorporates the symbolism of St. Peter the fisherman and the keeper of cross keys of the kingdom of heaven.

The bronze of The Return of The Prodigal Son by Charlie Mackesy can be seen in the courtyard.

To support the cost of the new church facility an eight storey residential block on the northern site boundary overlooking York Gardens; was designed. The scheme for 69 new flats included affordable, shared equity and private sale ats and a new vicarage. The design incorporates a landscaped courtyard providing a pedestrian route linking the Winstanley Estate to Plough Road.

The project enabled collaboration with architects and artists whose work has been integrated into the building. Richard Kindersley produced the stone carvings inside and out of the building and the wrought iron gates to the courtyard. Ptolemy Mann designed the digitally printed glass, based on an abstraction of fish scales, while Charlie Mackesy produced the courtyard bronze of the Prodigal Son’s return.

Architects: Portal Architecture with Greenhill Jenner Partnership

Structural Engineers: Price & Myers

M&E: Environmental Engineering Partnership

‍Quantity Surveyors: Synergy

Lighting Design: Sutton Vane

Coloured Glass Design: Ptolemy Mann

Wrought Iron Gates, Standing Stone Monolith & Stone Carving: Richard Kindersley Studio

Bronze Sculpture: Charlie Mackesy

Developer: Thornsett plc

Main Contractor: Richardson (Nyewood) Ltd

‍Architectural Team: John Jenner, Howard Allen, Ian Munton, Michael Davey,

Photography: WilliamBeck,

Ruth Ward,

DomePhotographyDotCom

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A total restoration and conversion of a Victorian Cotswold Stone country house into a modern home with a converted coach house into a work-from-home office.

Photography : William Beck

An Edwardian villa within the Streatham Lodge Conservation Area was refurbished and extended to provide family accommodation and a work-from-home office in a converted garage at the bottom of the garden. The works also involved creating a large kitchen and dining area that encompassed the entire rear of the house. The works also included a roof extension that provide an addtional bedroom and bathroom.

A complete refurbishment and conversion of two flats back into a single house.

The brief was to extend the house to give new kitchen and dining room accommodation and to upgrade the bathrooms.

The extension comprises a lightweight steel construction and Schuco aluminium folding doors which lock onto the steel cruciform corner column. The house is in a conservation area and so it was important to produce a design that was modern but harmonius with the existing Edwardian house.

A  terrace of 59 houses was designed by  John Nash and completed in 1826. The design was to give the appearance of a palace overlooking the park. The terrace comprises three main blocks, linked together by decorative arches. 

During the Second World War the building became an annexe to  the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force who were housed in the adjacent Albany Barracks.

The terrace, now Grade 1 Listed, was converted into flats in the 1960s for the Crown Estate. Portal Architecture was commissioned to carry out a full condition survey and refurbishment of the exterior and common parts.

Much of the original stucco had been poorly repaired with Portland cement render and this was carefully replaced with a lime render to match the original.  The 1960s entrance doors to each block were replaced with a pattern copied from old photographs and original examples extant in nearby Chester Terrace. 

Part of our remit was to incorporate  security cameras and modern door entry systems, all of which was done with the close involvement of English Heritage..

This house was built in 1936 and is clearly influenced by the Voysey and Lutyens houses of the turn of the 20th Century. The tall chimney stacks and sprocket pitched roofs being characteristics of the architects. The house had a rather unsympathetic single storey 1980s extension and a conservatory that had poor insulation and leaking roofs.

Planning consent was granted to demolish the conservatory and extend the house to provide new kitchen and dining accommodation as well as a utility room and pantry.

The obselete gas heating system replaced with an air source heat pump and underfoor heating in the extension with new radiators in the existing house. The energy efficiency was enhanced with the introduction of solar panels integrated into the new roof with batteries to run on off-peak electricity.

The extension was designed to be thermally efficient and is constructed of blockwork and Cotswold stone with Brimstone Ash timber cladding.

The final phase of works will include fitted timber joinery and external landscaping and is due for completion in 2026.

A mid-terrace Victorian house typical of much of South London was given a total refurbishment and extended to incorporate a new kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. A new roof extension was added to provide an additional bedroom and bathroom

London Fire Brigade 
Knight’s Hill, West Norwood London SE27 

The design of this new facility is a product of two key ideas: providing a contextual solution and refining and updating conventional fire station design to reflect the spirit and ambitions of the modern fire service. 

In a design review CABE commented “the scheme fits successfully into the context of Knight’s Hill and its massing works well with the domestic scale of the adjacent properties. We are pleased to see that a modern scheme aspires to continue the tradition of well designed fire stations set up by the London County Council at the beginning of the 20th century. This prototype has the potential to become an exemplar for future fire brigades in London”.

We were commissioned to design new operating theatres and a recovery ward for a private hospital in London’s Harley Street healthcare district. Two new theatres were created in a complex cut and carve basement extension and two existing theatres were refurbished.

The project needed very careful planning and works had to be phased as the hospital had to remain functional during the construction period.

The finished project created a four theatre state-of-the-art operating suite including a laminar flow theatre and a recovery ward including a post anaesthetic care unit (PACU) room.

A refurbishment of two training wards in the teaching hospital for junior doctors to learn about modern healthcare. We worked closely with the hospital to provide the best possible facilities within the budget.

New bedhead service panels were installed to simulate the use of medical gasses.

The merger and relocation of the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch courts into a 1920’s print-works building created a unique set of technical and stakeholder issues. Comfortable environmental conditions were achieved by using active chilled beams in the always-occupied office and administrative areas and by employing fan-coils in the courts and waiting areas, allowing unoccupied areas to be shut down whenever possible. New lifts provide full access to all floors and minimise the impact on the external structure. Fully accessible meeting rooms on each level enable solicitors to confer with their clients before a hearing.

Carefully chosen fabric wrapped panels control the court acoustics and provide each court with a unique identity.

The sensitive refurbishment is recognised as a “fresh and innovative approach to court design” by HMCS..

We were already in the early design stages of a 5,000m2 flagship bookstore London’s Oxford Street when our client sold to the 200 store giant Borders Books based in Ann Arbor Michigan. A different client from across the Atlantic created its own set of challenges within an already tight programme. A complete redesign was required including moving recently procured escalators into new positions.

We helped the new client procure a supply chain of vendors who produced items from bespoke bookshelves through to floor tiles and carpets. Borders UK went on to open further 6 book superstores in the UK.

44 Loman Street, London, SE1 0EH

Built in 1912 as a sawmill and coppersmith’s workshop, this building had fallen into disrepair before it was bought by the multi-media design consultancy Big Idea. The client approached us for ideas as to what they could do with the building. 

The priority was to get as much natural light into the building as possible, especially on the ground floor. The original roof trusses and party wall were retained, the rest of the structure was replaced. The first floor provides an open plan design studio while the ground floor has been designed with a meeting room and a gallery space for exhibitions.

The built-in storage units were carefully designed to integrate with the Richard Meier desks and read as a continuous piece of furniture.

A feasibility study to provide a new diagnostics wing to an existing private hospital within a Health Park in Essex.

The Crown Estate had recently built a new office complex on the corner of Vine Street and Swallow Street. Opposite was a service yard for offices and a restaurant that faced onto Piccadilly. The brief was to create a facade that would allow vehicular access to the service yard and screen the activities from view of the new offices.

On the corner of the site was an electricity sub-station that had to be maintained that was sensitive to vibration from the building work. The ground conditions meant that piling had to be undertaken to support the new structure which was further complicated by the proximity of the TfL Piccadilly Line that ran under the site.

The simple facade belies the complextity and logistics of getting the design through the various stages of approval to the finished building.

Stores throughout UK

Our involvement with Books Etc goes back to 1985 when the practice was founded.  We helped the chain develop a corporate style and expand to a national chain with 35 branches throughout the UK including some airport locations.

The stores were designed to display the maximum number of title headers from any vantage point obviating the need for store directories.

We developed a reversible shelving system that enabled the retailer to  display either paperback or hardback books with face-out or spine-out orientation, this was so successful that other book-retailers soon copied the idea.

After a fact finding mission to the USA, Books etc. rolled out the installation of coffee bars in some of the stores, this was very sucessful ultimately leading to the aquisition of the chain by the American chain Borders Group in 1998.

Lauzun, France

We established an office in SW France to carry out  a major restoration and conversion of this 14th Century Chateau into a 25-room 4 star hotel and restaurant. The project involved obtaining all local consents  and the coordination of stone masons, carpenters and other skilled tradesmen from the locale.

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