Kensington High Street

127 Kensington High Street The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has approved our plans for the renovation and remodelling of 127 Kensington High Street. In 2015, Columbia Threadneedle commissioned Pilbrow & Partners to prepare redevelopment proposals for 127 Kensington High Street at the corner of Kensington High Street and Wrights Lane. The proposals remodel the bleak 1970s building to transform the quality of its architecture, public realm and internal working environment. The mixed-use building will provide next-generation office space and will also improve connectivity to Kensington High Street Underground station through the creation of a new retail arcade. The existing building is a purpose-built department store built in the 1970s but occupied principally with offices. The retail is poorly configured and routes to the adjacent Kensington High Street Underground Station are informal through the ground floor Boots unit. The existing building is recognised as being of low architectural quality and its large, blank ground floor frontages detracting from the public realm along Wrights Lane. The orthogonal planning of the existing building breaks the alignment of the historic street wall, leaving awkward residual spaces on this frontage. The proposals restore the definition of the urban block with new facades of Roman brick and Portland Stone. The building scale along this frontage is modulated as a series of bays - a remediation of the relentless mass of the existing building and a restoration of its civic nature. The revised office space, doubled in scale, will provide better quality workspace, benefiting from improved accessibility, flexibility, environmental performance and a high proportion of external space. The existing office entrances will be consolidated into a single new lobby on Wrights Lane set on axis with Iverna Court. This entrance connects to a new core set on the eastern elevation that serves floor plates that are well lit, well-proportioned and capable of flexible subdivision. The upper floors set back from Wrights Lane, creating generous external terraces on the upper floors. Elevational Proposals The proposals remodel the existing 1970s building to deliver an appropriate architectural response to this prominent site on Kensington High Street. Historically Kensington High Street boasted three famous department stores, Barkers, Derry & Toms and Pontings -the latter was located on this site prior to its closure when the existing building was constructed. The architecture of the surviving department stores to the east -both listed- provided reference to the proposed elevational approach with a restored hierarchy of base, body and attic elements. The detail and depth of the elevations in a white Roman Brick echo the Portland Stone facades of the listed neighbouring buildings. The Arcade A new retail arcade offers public access to the Underground, animated by a parade of specialist retail units.