Pearl House was once a significant 1960’s podium and tower office development, but its tower was demolished in the 1999 and with it any semblance of architectural merit was also lost. Our clients acquired the property and commissioned Gaunt Francis to assess the potential of a mixed-use redevelopment favouring residential, but with retail space fronting the important Bartholomew Street pedestrianised area.

The site sits centrally within the local Conservation Area and adjacent to the grade I listed St Nicolas Church. Our task was to optimise the site’s potential through sensitive intervention of new forms and fabric, that respected the existing character but offered something new for the town. Car parking became an important consideration, as did flood risk design, and 50 new apartments were successfully arranged in a sophisticated plan around sun-filled central courtyards, with frontage elevations on all sides of the site.