Green light for plan to demolish and rebuild 1960s office on London’s Gray’s Inn Road

Piercy & Co’s plans to knock down a brutalist office block in central London and replace it with a timber, mixed-use scheme have been given the go ahead.

Camden council voted unanimously last week to approve the proposals for 100 Gray’s Inn Road and 127 Clerkenwell Road, which is within the Hatton Garden conservation area.

Designed for Lawnmist Limited, it will replace two large office buildings including a 1960s block with an eight-storey building providing 12,000 sq m of office space, ground floor retail and six affordable homes. It will be built using a glulam frame and CLT floor structures.

The complex site also includes 88 Gray’s Inn Road, a smaller office building hidden behind the street frontage which is accessed by a passageway.

The planning officer’s report, which recommended approval, praised the plans for their “high design quality and excellent sustainability credentials”.

The report noted the impact of demolition rather than reusing the existing buildings, but said the benefits of the scheme, of which 10% of the workspace will be affordable, were “compelling”.

The Hatton Garden conservation area appraisal lists 100 Gray’s Inn Road as a “negative contributor” to the area. The site neighbours several grade II-listed buildings, including the Edwardian-era Bourne Estate and the historic Gray’s Inn Walk gardens.

Piercy & Co said the scheme’s design has been closely informed by the nearby heritage sites, which had been a major topic of discussion during pre-application talks.

However, Historic England have objected to the plans because of their impact on the setting and significance of local listed assets. The planning officer responded that the new building was suitably well designed to minimise harm, and that its public benefits would outweigh any harm caused.

The scheme includes a ground floor retail unit which has been inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks, which shows a brightly lit diner fronted with a sweeping window.

The project team includes cost and transport consultant NRP, planning consultant Gerald Eve, heritage consultant The Townscape Consultancy, structural engineer Heyne Tillett Steel, MEP engineer Max Fordham, fire engineer Warrington Fire and facade consultant Eckersley O’Callaghan. Blue Sky Building has drawn up the construction management plan.