Four storeys to be added to former high-security facility near Hatton Garden
DSDHA’s plans to add four storeys to a 1990s office block in Farringdon previously used as part of the De Beers diamond campus have been given the green light.
The six-storey building at 19 Charterhouse Street, located close to Hatton Garden, will be refurbished and extended with new office space under proposals drawn up by the practice for BNF Capital.
Completed in 1991, the existing building was formerly used by De Beers, the London-based diamond giant, as a high-security training facility for people working in the diamond industry.
The nature of the building’s former use has given it an “austere and fortress-like” appearance with little street activation and only one level access, according to DHSDA.
Approved last week by Camden council, the firm’s proposals include the complete replacement of the building’s facade with a Portland stone and bronze-coloured alloy cladding and a new double-height glazed frontage.
A large rooftop plant enclosure will also be removed and replaced with a roof extension beneath three further storeys stepping back at the seventh, eight and ninth levels and a rooftop pavilion, bringing the scheme to 10 storeys.
Around 2,800sq m of floorspace will be added to the 10,000sq m existing building, along with a series of roof gardens on the scheme’s new upper levels. A sculptural ‘lantern’ will also be built on the top corner of the building to mark the boundary of the boroughs of Camden, Islington and the City of London.
Despite local policy requiring 50% of new workspace in Hatton Garden to be provided as affordable jewellery workspace, only 520sq m, or 19%, has been allocated in the scheme. This will be provided at peppercorn rate in perpetuity, which Camden’s planning officers have deemed acceptable.
While officers said the scheme would cause some heritage harm to the Hatton Garden conservation area, they argued setbacks to the scheme’s massing and its textured facades had reduced this impact.
The project team includes development manager Morgan Real Estate, Abakus Consulting on costs, David Maguire on structures, Sweco on building services, David Bonnett Associates on accessibility, Newmark on planning, Turley on heritage, Momentum on transport and Kanda on communications.
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