Cork Street
- Client: The Pollen Estate
- Contacts: Jason Rudolph
Cork Street Mews redevelopment is a complex, mixed-use scheme of the existing historic buildings which fronts onto two established and well-known streets in the Mayfair Conservation Area.
The development comprises of three new art gallery spaces across basement to first floors, two high end jewellers on New Bond Street and a variety of prime offices spaces overlooking Cork Street and the Mews. Through the adaptation and re-use of the existing fabric and the careful insertion of sensitive newly built elements the scheme provides flexibility, adaptability, and variety.
The new sensitive Portland stone façade infill to No.7 Cork Street revitalises and completes the conservation area streetscape. The façade transitions between the sequence of historic buildings enriching the world-renowned street.
Maintaining the historic plot widths was essential, but behind the facades the floorplate and core offers the flexibility to split, join and combine areas subject to tenant requirements and future market trends. Staggered terraces enable floors to open up to amenity at most levels improving a sense of wellbeing with biophilia and ecology. The main office space was let to HSBC and the approach taken was key to meeting the various characteristics required by their specific requirements.
Views are maintained along the historic parish boundary wall, which defines the narrow character of the mews. Glazing separates the new sculptural stair from the rear of the New Bond Street buildings.
The stair form is clad in a mosaic artwork by the artist Nicolas Feldmeyer, who references the contemplation of space and light being key to his work. Titled ‘Looking Up’, the artwork encourages the viewer to appreciate the tall volume whilst playing with light and reflectivity.
The ‘stopping up’ of the end of the mews facilitated a retail extension to the luxurious jewellers that front onto New Bond Street. The triplex units offer unique, personable and intimate spaces are well suited to the types of tenants that activate this historic retail street. The former, a utilitarian service road, is now an animated and unifying amenity area.
