Metropolis
Metropolis, Marylebone W1
Completed in 1959 as Woolworth’s UK headquarters, the building now known as Metropolis has long stood as a symbol of London’s commercial optimism - and of an era that built up, rather than out. Decades later, that spirit has been reimagined for a new generation. In collaboration with Henderson Park and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, we chose transformation over demolition. The project has transformed the mid-century landmark into a 173,500 sq ft, net-zero carbon commercial hub that exemplifies best practice in adaptive reuse and wellbeing-led workplace development and brings the existing structure in line with the needs of contemporary office occupiers."
– General Projects
Woolworth House was originally designed by Richard Seifert in 1955 as the UK headquarters of the US retailer F.W. Woolworth, and its construction was completed in 1959.
Internally, a generous new office reception hub is accessed from Harewood Avenue, and a stepped atrium visually connects the reception with the upper floors, bringing additional daylight to the deepest office floor plates.
The scheme features very low embodied carbon as the majority of the existing building fabric – including masonry facades, concrete frame and cores– will be retained, and CLT will be used for all the new slabs forming the building extension. The amount of embodied carbon saved by retaining the existing fabric equals to 255t CO2.
Metropolis benefits from over 20,000 square feet of amenity, including external terraces on every floor, several internal amenity and break-out areas, a high specification cycle store and associated facilities.
Project Team
- Size: 176,000 sq ft
- Landlord: General Projects/Henderson Park
- Architects: AHMM
- Contractor: McLaren
- Leasing: Edward Charles & Partners & Knight Frank
- Wesbite: www.themetropolisbuilding.com