IN Brief:
- Bridgemont has submitted plans for a major retrofit of One Embankment Place above Charing Cross Station.
- Around 90% of the existing structure and floorplate and approximately 60% of the façade are proposed for retention.
- The all-electric redevelopment targets a roughly 70% reduction in operational energy use, EPC A, and BREEAM Excellent.
Bridgemont has submitted plans for a major retrofit of One Embankment Place above Charing Cross Station, proposing to retain most of the existing office building while replacing its services and upgrading its commercial accommodation.
The Terry Farrell-designed building dates from the early 1990s and sits directly above live railway infrastructure. Bridgemont’s proposal adopts a retrofit-first approach, retaining around 90% of the existing structure and floorplate and approximately 60% of the façade rather than clearing the building for complete redevelopment.
Hopkins has designed the scheme to provide around 35,000 sq m of Grade A office space together with upgraded workplace facilities, terraces, and new ground-floor retail and leisure uses along Villiers Street.
The retained structure is the central construction constraint. Reusing the existing frame can avoid much of the concrete and steel associated with replacement construction, but it transfers risk into surveys, strengthening, tolerances, temporary works, demolition sequencing, and the interfaces between existing and new elements.
Columns, slabs, foundations, cores, and service zones were designed for the building’s original configuration. Detailed design will therefore need to establish how much alteration can be accommodated without undermining the value of retention through extensive strengthening or replacement work.
The railway location makes that process more demanding. Access, lifting, temporary works, noise, vibration, fire strategy, debris control, and construction logistics will need to be planned around Charing Cross Station and the railway below, where prolonged disruption to normal operations is not an available construction method.
Space for compounds and material storage is also constrained. Deliveries and removals will have to be sequenced through a dense central London environment while maintaining pedestrian movement, neighbouring commercial activity, and access to the wider station complex.
The services strategy replaces gas-fired plant with an all-electric heating and cooling system based on air source heat pumps. More than 180 photovoltaic panels are planned at roof level, while operational energy use is expected to fall by around 70% compared with the existing building.
The redevelopment is targeting EPC A and BREEAM Excellent. Reaching those levels will depend on the interaction between the retained envelope, replacement façade sections, heat pumps, ventilation, electrical systems, controls, metering, and commissioning rather than any single piece of equipment.
Retaining around 60% of the façade creates another important interface. Existing elements must continue to meet weathering, thermal, maintenance, and appearance requirements while new sections are integrated alongside them. Weak detailing between retained and replacement assemblies could undermine both energy performance and long-term durability.
The professional team includes AKT II on structural and civil engineering, Arup on MEP, and Turner & Townsend Alinea on cost consultancy. Construction is expected to take around 36 months if planning and procurement progress.
Commercial retrofit projects are increasingly being pushed towards the performance standards expected from new Grade A offices. Railpen’s 12 Smithfield Street scheme is another London example where an existing structure is being retained while the building is extended and upgraded.
One Embankment Place adds a more restrictive railway interface. Any intrusive work must account for what sits below the building as well as the condition of the structure itself, putting temporary works and logistics alongside energy performance as defining technical issues.
The planning-stage retention percentages will also need to survive detailed investigation. Intrusive surveys can expose corrosion, damaged concrete, undocumented alterations, restricted service zones, or loading constraints that were not apparent during early design, requiring the project team to decide whether local strengthening or replacement remains consistent with the retrofit strategy.
That makes early contractor and specialist input particularly valuable before major packages are fixed. Structural alterations, façade sequencing, plant replacement, logistics, and railway protection measures need to be developed together because changes in one discipline can quickly affect access and temporary works elsewhere.
The planning submission moves the project closer to delivery, but consent is only one threshold. Detailed design, railway interfaces, cost certainty, procurement, and the retained-building condition still have to be resolved before the proposed 36-month construction programme can begin.
If the retention strategy proves buildable at detailed-design stage, One Embankment Place will provide a substantial test of how far a constrained early-1990s commercial building can be upgraded without resorting to complete demolition above one of London’s busiest transport sites.
