B-bis refurbishes Victorian warehouse in central London

The project concerns the renovation of three separate flats on ground, first and second floor in a converted three-storey Victorian warehouse building. We transformed it both externally and internally, while enhancing its existing unique qualities such as the mass concrete floors on the ground level and exposed brickwork walls.

The aim of the project was to restore the building and to enhance the streetscape. The internal layouts look to maximise the social living spaces of the floor plan with a series of open plan rooms that invite a variety of potential activities. Walls between living spaces set a series of transient volumes with the ability to be closed off or completely open to the adjacent room.

Key features

Each apartment has its own unique characteristics. However, the general aesthetic expresses the existing building features of the warehouse building, while incorporating highly bespoke timber carpentry and stainless-steel fittings.

Each flat has at least two bedrooms and includes a large open plan kitchen and living space, which provides the focal point for the apartments. The internal spaces are finished to a high level of architectural detailing with multiple instances of bespoke joinery such as pocket doors, fold-down murphy beds and open shelf libraries. A series of long views through the apartment spaces provide a sense of openness and connection between inside and outside.

The south façade of the building was previously a bare plastered wall as part of a terrace. This end wall has been transformed into a full façade in London stock brick with a showpiece picture bay window that provides daylight deep into the first-floor apartment and striking views out to the street. New aluminium windows were introduced on the ground floor of the south elevation to improve the rhythm of the existing ground floor windows across the façade.

Environmental performance

The project has included thermal upgrades to the external fabric by improving the performance of the windows and insulating the external fabric of the re-built south elevation wall. We also increased the levels of insulation in the main mansard roof and replaced the rooflights with high performance modern ones.

Innovative solutions

The key unique design feature of the project is the bay window on the south elevation. This includes warehouse style windows and metalwork, which is in keeping with the building’s industrial past and the local urban aesthetic in Bermondsey. The size and shape of proposed glazing creates a ‘book-end’ feature that brings interest and vitality to the street.