Creating a dynamic new community in the City of London

Barts Square

London, UK

This piece of prime City of London land, previously owned by the neighbouring St Bartholomew’s Hospital, was purchased by Helical plc more than a decade ago with a long-term vision for creating a new, vibrant mixed-use site.

The site, which had previously housed a range of ancillary hospital buildings and nurses’ accommodation, had for a long time been an underutilised backwater. The developer’s vision was to transform this area into a new district, with offices, apartments, retail and valuable areas of public realm that would have a cohesive effect on this new community.

The Barts Square development has regenerated a 3.2-acre site immediately adjacent to St Bartholomew’s Hospital into a vibrant mixed-use scheme.

The creation of valuable new public realm was a critical element in building a new community in this corner of the City of London.

Buro Happold was commissioned to advise on infrastructure, transport and mobility, waste and inclusive design.

Our infrastructure team developed an holistic drainage strategy for the site and built a 3D digital model of the utilities across the whole plot to ensure clashes could be avoided.

Challenge

The scheme is focussed around a large central square – a unifying area of public space that was key to the place-making strategy behind the largest regeneration project in the City of London for almost 20 years.

Proposals for the 3.2 acre site have delivered 21,000m² of office, 2,500m² of retail, 236 residential units and significant improvements to the public realm. Buro Happold was commissioned to advise on infrastructure, transport and mobility, waste and inclusive design – all key elements to ensuring the development successfully made it through the planning process to fruition.

Situated within the City of London, a key building within the scheme is the 12-storey office building One Bartholomew Close. We played a key role in the realisation of this new landmark, providing consultancy around facades engineering.  It was critical that the wider Barts Square development supported the new centrepiece building with attractive public spaces, efficient street systems and enticing retail and residential offerings.

Solution

We produced a full Transport Assessment and contributed to the Environmental Impact Assessment – both key aspects to the success of the planning process.  

Our main focus, given the proximity of excellent public transport links, was the encouragement of sustainable travel, through provision of minimal car parking, extensive cycle parking and the much-enhanced public realm.

Appropriate provision for delivery vehicles was an important design consideration and we also provided design advice on the waste strategy and access and facilities for the disabled.

The nearby Albion Way was significantly re-routed to make the site work effectively for traffic, and our experts provided specialist Section 278 advice on changes to highways to allow the creation of a public square, built around a group of mature plane trees. This has provided a clear pedestrian-friendly focal point for the new community.

Our infrastructure team developed an holistic drainage strategy for the site and made sure that the existing utilities and other subterranean constraints were factored into the design process. We built a 3D digital model of the utilities across the whole site to ensure clashes could be avoided.

We supported the wider design team to negotiate the complex planning process, which included a considerable amount of public consultation. Key to the success of this was an analysis of current parking and the development of a predicted parking strategy for the site.

We analysed the potential impacts on all public transport modes in the area, taking into account the cumulative development of other schemes in the district, as well as assessing pedestrian comfort on the pavements in the historically narrow road grid.

The waste strategy had to balance both the demands of the local authority – which wanted easy-access waste collection facilities – together with achieving the client’s aspirations to maximise the commercial opportunities for the desirable ground floor spaces.

The solution was multiple basement bin stores, connected to the ground floor with waste chutes for easy depositing of waste. Our team had to demonstrate strategies for bringing the bins to the ground floor on collection days, including added resilience plans for times when service lifts may be out of order. This involved the use of nearby car lifts in emergency situations and the manual movement of bags up to a spare bin in those buildings without car lifts.  

Value

Buro Happold’s multidisciplinary team played a number of critical roles in helping to drive this landmark scheme through the planning and design process.

Members of the City’s Planning Committee voted unanimously in November 2012 to grant planning permission and conservation area consent for the scheme. The regeneration reached its completion in 2020.