City gives green light for plan to convert Farringdon office building into hotel

The City of London has approved plans by Chris Dyson Architects to transform an office block near St Paul’s Cathedral into an 85-room hotel.

The firm’s plans for Lipman Properties will refurbish and extend the post-war building at 1 Farringdon Street, just off Fleet Street, adding a two-storey mansard roof set back from the existing parapet line.

Approved at the end of last week, the 3,460sq m development will also include a publicly accessible rooftop garden and bar served by a new lift concealed within a brick-clad volume designed to resemble a chimney stack.

Practice founder Chris Dyson said: “The building has an ideal location in terms of serving visitors to the City. It’s close to St Paul’s Cathedral, the new Museum of London, the Elizabeth Line, and within the burgeoning Fleet Street Quarter, which is turning a too often overlooked part of London into a fantastic destination.” 

The project team includes DP9 on planning, Elliot Wood on structures, The Heritage Practice on heritage, RYBKA on MEP, Spacehub on landscape and XO2 on air quality.

The building, which is unlisted, retains the principal north and west facades of a four-storey commercial block dating from the early 1870s. While the London stock brick and stone-detailed elevations remain, the structure was substantially reconstructed and extended during the early 1980s.