Client The Crown Estate
Project Medical and Residential
Location London W1
Services Lead Consultant, Conservation &
Restoration, Refurbishment and Interior Design
132 Harley Street is a good example of the re-use of a listed building. It is also well known that the former town houses on Harley Street have become the premises for medical practitioners for over a century. However, with the constant change and greater demands to meet sophisticated methods of treatment involving the need to incorporate complex and often large pieces of medical equipment, increasingly higher demands for hygiene standards and requirements to meet the DDA have made the conversion and adaptation of these buildings a more challenging task.
132 was in an extremely dilapidated state, did not comply with current standards for medical practitioners and was also suffering from structural problems inherent from the original construction. It is a grade II listed former town house and now provides for modern day medical treatment on three floors, a practice Manager’s flat on the top floor and a self contained residential flat on the second floor. The building has been completely upgraded in terms of services which include drainage, central heating, lighting, power and telecommunication. Being on multiple floors and with only one main staircase, extensive upgrading of internal doors, paneling and partitions had to be undertaken to meet stringent fire escape requirements and at the same time cause minimal intervention to historic fabric A new lift has been carefully inserted into the building located away from the historic core as well as the provision of equipment and fittings elsewhere within the building to comply with the DDA. In conjunction with the alterations and ‘new work’ the building has also been very carefully repaired and restored to it’s former glory with the reinstatement of the original floor plan wherever possible, careful and sensitive repairs to existing timber paneling, doors and windows, decorative fibrous plaster, masonry and stonework with the use of traditional craft and materials. The building also achieved an excellent rating under the BREEAM assessment.
Structural and consolidation works were also undertaken
throughout the building and involved tying back the front elevation
to the internal floors, strengthening and upgrading internal walls
where excessive deflection had occurred in floors and also general
repairs to structure where previous adaptations and alteration had
caused significant damage to the historic fabric.
