2 Fitzhardinge Street completed

2 Fitzhardinge Street is a grade 2 listed Georgian townhouse in the heart of the Portman Estate conservation area. Feilden+Mawson were commissioned by the Portman Estate to transform the building into high quality office space.

In its original state the property contained some fine rooms with a fair degree of intactness but other areas were of poor quality and with minimal daylight. The building is six storeys including basement and relied on steep stairs for access to all floors. The principal stair is one of the building’s finest features and has an open well top lit by a lantern.

A Victorian upward extension to create a 4th floor had resulted in later strengthening of many of the floors with steelwork, thus compromising a number of the Georgian ceilings. It was considered too much damage would be caused in trying to remove these, however after the post war ceilings were removed copies of the historic ceilings were created below the level of the steelwork.

The aspiration of the Estate was to install a lift to enhance the lettability of the building, potentially on a floor by floor basis. F+M’s strategy was to build a new rear extension to create better quality commercial space with improved daylight into the ground and basement floors and to add a lift shaft in the form of a closet wing to improve the appearance of the rear of the building in the context of the conservation area. After extensive discussions with both Westminster and English Heritage this proposal was approved. This enabled high quality lettable space to be created on all floors.

On the exterior of the building tuck pointing was installed at ground floor level where previously the brickwork had been painted, and to match adjacent properties in the terrace. In addition the Georgian glazing bar pattern was reinstated.