Aldersgate House
Deep retrofit of a late-1980s office above Barbican station
Location: City of London
, UK
Status: On site
Service: Architecture, Interiors, Retrofit
Area: 2,160m² / 23,240ft²
Client: Universal Consolidated Group Ltd.
2024-26
Aldersgate House is a late-1980s office building directly above Barbican station in the City of London, hemmed in by the Tube and Crossrail tunnels beneath it. We are retrofitting it for UCG, moving it to all-electric services and from an EPC of F/G towards B. The tunnels cap any added load at five per cent, which rules out extension, and working over live lines makes recladding unfeasible. So we work entirely within the existing shell, turning a tired, overlooked building into boutique, low-carbon offices in one of the City's best-connected locations.
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We strip out the suspended ceilings to expose the original steel frame, recovering over 500mm of height and bringing volume and light into the floor plates. Air source heat pumps replace the gas boilers. New ductwork runs beneath the existing downstand steel beams, organised alongside lighting and pipework to keep visual order in the exposed ceilings.
At ground level we double the width of the entrance lobby, absorbing a former coffee-shop bay and removing a cluttered canopy. Terrazzo, red travertine and timber line the arrival spaces, and the existing triangular stair becomes a marker, picked out in deep orange and lit so it reads from the street. Rather than fight the building's 1980s character of brick, precast concrete and Aztec columns, we lean into it.
Project news
Process
Construction — the original steel frame has been exposed, now protected by intumescent paint
Concept design
Designed by Rolfe Judd Architects in the late 1980's, the building was most recently used as a training and conference venue
232.
Aldersgate House
Year:
2024-26
CF team: Francis Fawcett, Oliver Cooke, Zachary Henderson, Julia Belozertseva, Francesca Savvides
MEP Engineers: Skelly and Couch, KSL
Structures: Axiom
Contractor: Bryen Langley
Photos: Peter Landers