A Crossroad in the Urban Context

History and Character of the Site

The site has taken various urban forms throughout history.  From 1850 to the present, some of the buildings that occupied the site have been large buildings, including the 4000-seat Queen’s Theatre, creating a prominent urban intervention at the intersection of Long Acre and Endell Street in the heart of Covent Garden.

Urban Analysis and Design Response

The design team has undertaken a detailed survey and analysis of the public realm and pedestrian context to inform the design approach to the redevelopment.

Our proposal seeks to:

- Integrate the development within the well-connected street network or hierarchy of local routes and the tight urban grain of Covent Garden, Long Acre, Neal Street and Seven Dials;

- Redevelop a prominent site situated at a crossroad on the metropolitan scale; and

- Enhance the transition between two areas of distinctive character; the shops and restaurants of Covent Garden and Seven Dials, and the cluster of offices and residential area.

The workplace environment is inefficient and does not meet the needs or expectations of modern office occupants.

Disconection from the Public Realm

The current office building on the site, designed by R Seifert and Partners and constructed between 1979-81 for MEPC plc (formerly Metropolitan Estates & Property Corporation), comprises lower and upper ground floors, eight upper storeys and a two-level basement car park.

The building is unsympathetic to the surroundings and the materiality of the façades competes with the surroundings.  A succession of light-wells, raised and sunken entrances and inactive frontages detach the ground level of the building from the street presence.  All of these attributes contribute to the isolation of the building from street life and realise a disparate public realm along the extent of Long Acre.

The provision of a building providing only office accommodation is out of character with its context and interrupts the continuous spine of retail activity along Long Acre.

The workplace environment is inefficient and does not meet the needs or expectations of modern office occupants.

Street Level Internal Spaces and Inactive Frontages

NB: the moats and lightwells are used for air circulation in some instances and for access to plant space in others.