of
Situated in the compact district of South Shoreditch, immediately north of the City of London, these three warehouses at 76-80 Great Eastern Street were built by Charles Bryant and the King Family between 1882 and 1884. The area is characterised by a legacy of Victorian and Edwardian Warehouses, an inheritance that derives from the area being at the heart of the furniture trade from the mid-19th century through to the mid-20th century. Fire damage and the decline of the furniture trade effectively terminated the building's involvement in the manufacturing industry in the early 1980s.
Having been subjected to an economical restoration, the three buildings were utilised as offices with cellular layouts on all floors and smoked glass windows. The past two decades has witnessed the transformation of Shoreditch into a well-balanced amalgamation of residential and office accommodation intermixed with a plethora of galleries, small boutique retailers and a famous night time economy. With a brief to create a high quality office building a mix of public and private uses was decided upon to enhance the buildings' setting within the streetscape but also to foster a relationship with the community of Shoreditch and beyond.
Looking into the detail of the scheme, the approach was to strip away the 20th century insertions, whilst retaining, restoring and celebrating the historic fabric to provide a modern and creative working environment on the upper floors and reinstating active shop-fronts at street level. Complementing the office uses; the reception, restaurant and retail units animate the building within the streetscape which is further enhanced through the installation of new frameless glass shop-fronts, thermally and acoustically efficient sash windows and the cleaning of the masonry. Since the project was completed, further commissions in the area have arisen including similar refurbishment projects, penthouse roof extensions and new build mixed use schemes.