This part new build part refurbishment student residential scheme on Britannia Street in the King’s Cross Conservation Area provides 230 high-quality purpose-built student units for Knightsbridge Student Housing Limited. The development also includes a self-contained performance gallery, which activates the ground level street frontage on Wicklow Street, additional office accommodation on the lower ground floor and two new residential apartments in the 1875 refurbished building.
CJCT worked closely with the Conservation and Urban Design Team at the LB Camden and the English Heritage to assess and establish the significant sections of the existing buildings of architectural and historical value, enabling the design team to enhance parts of the existing envelope which deserved retention and celebration, whilst identifying areas of removal and replacement. The proposals for the former Whitbread Brewery’s Depot aimed to regenerate the site by retaining the valuable existing elevations and to redevelop the rest of the site in appropriate, harmonious and exemplary architectural treatment.
The overall result is a rich and varied elevation treatment that changes according to the orientation and location of the observer, resulting in an appropriate design for both the 21st Century and the King’s Cross Conservation Area. The completed building incorporates architecture of the traditional, utilitarian brick buildings to ensure an appropriate contextual composition which sits seamlessly in its local context – preserving and enhancing.
