Wardour Street

DSDHA's design for the conversion of a former office building on Wardour Street, in the Soho Conservation Area, preserves the existing café at ground and basement levels and provides three contemporary double-aspect apartments and a duplex penthouse, all with exceptional levels of daylight.

Rather than the high-end warehouse conversion aesthetic that has become commonplace, the scheme sensitively reveals the history of this former printworks, stripping back the built fabric to create a dialogue between the original structure, its later adaptations and new interventions, sharply detailed and crafted but left deliberately raw to reflect the site’s industrial past. The brick is left exposed in certain areas to visually connect the original 1885 London stock brick party walls with the red brick texture of the more recent fire-protected stair.

The rooftop accommodates a discreet new extension that offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the local mansard typology. The new roof form is a uniquely sculptural volume, clad in a bespoke profile zinc sheathing, which frames the eclectic character of Soho while cutting out a series of spectacular views across the city.