John Robertson Architects (JRA) has completed the refurbishment and extension of One Great St Helen’s, an office building in the heart of the City of London’s Eastern Cluster, adjacent to the St Helen’s Conservation Area.
JRA was appointed in 2021 by Rafer Investments Ltd – on a project led by CBRE Development Management – to re-imagine and update the current building to meet contemporary leasing standards – whilst also aligning the building’s operation with the owner’s ESG aspirations. The original building, designed by Hurley, Robertson & Associates – the predecessor to JRA’s current practice – was completed for client Greycoat in 1998.
Situated just off Bishopsgate, next to the Commercial Union Tower, the area around One Great St Helen’s is characterised by a varied urban context. Since One Great St Helen’s was completed, the surrounding district, now known as ‘The Eastern Cluster’, has changed dramatically in the last 20 years with new office towers being built, including The Leadenhall Building, 22 Bishopsgate, and 8 Bishopsgate and the forthcoming 1 Undershaft.
Hurley, Robertson & Associates’ original design – based upon the firm’s ethos of contextual civic modernism – provided what was considered at the time to be market-leading workspace across nine levels. This centred upon an elegant, curved façade, responding to the winding contour of the Undershaft.
One Great St Helen’s was one of the first office buildings in the UK to be designed to the newly published British Council for Offices Specification and was awarded the BCO Award for Best Commercial Office Building (Southeast) in 2000.
The curved glass frontage facing Undershaft extends between two red sandstone ‘bookends’ which take their design language from the smaller scale urban spaces of Crosby Square – and the adjacent Grade 1, 13 th century Great St Helen’s church, which the City Corporation recognises as “one of the most important pieces of medieval fabric surviving in the City.”
1 These bookends comprise wide bay windows that were designed to maximise natural light into the office space. JRA’s original design context surrounding the site, and the renovated building continues to respond sympathetically to the cluster of new towers, while the new design introduces some innovative design elements to the interiors. This upgrade has focused on renovating office floor levels 1 to 9, whilst also remodelling the entrance hall, the creation of amenity space on the ground floor and the conversion of the basement car park into ‘end-of-trip’ space containing cycle parking, showers and changing facilities.
A new winter garden and landscaped roof terrace has been created on Level 10. This provides a mix of indoor and outdoor amenity space for occupiers and reflects growing demand for open roof terraces among office tenants. The new roof terrace has unique views of the surrounding office towers.
Previously an underutilised backroom and maintenance area, it had no access to direct sunlight or passive ventilation and fell short of current market standards. The lightwell – a key element of JRA’s design – has transformed the area into a bright, contemporary workplace with framed glimpses of the surrounding buildings.
JRA’s considered application of sustainable design practices has updated the building to meet modern leasing requirements including employee health and wellbeing, low carbon construction methods, and circular economy principles. For example, the retention of original design features – encapsulating JRA’s initial pioneering design and including the modulation of the curtain wall and the fins between cladding panels – helps to mitigate solar gain.
Concurrently, JRA’s approach to minimising demolition and waste, whilst maximising the reuse and recycling of waste materials generated during the refurbishment has resulted in a significantly lower embodied carbon output. In line with the client’s ESG aspirations, One Great St Helen’s has been designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent Certification.
The inherent embodied carbon savings produced by JRA’s retrofit first strategy has been supported by a building management approach that delivers a predicted 57% reduction in regulated carbon emissions over the Part L2B 2013 baseline.
Combined with the building’s excellent transport connections – with good pedestrian access to Liverpool Street Station and nearby Aldgate – JRA has also transformed the under-utilised car park facilities at basement level into a state-of-the-art, ‘end of journey’ cycle parking, and shower and changing facility for environmentally friendly commuting. This includes ten showers with changing rooms, lockers and toilet facilities and a disabled access shower with an adjoining locker room. This interior design aims to emulate the look and feel of a premium health centre or spa together with 100 long-stay cycle spaces which represents an increase of more than 40 per cent over the
70 spaces offered by the previous scheme and comprises wall-mounted cycle racks (68), folding cycle lockers (27) and disabled cycle spaces (5). John Robertson, Founder of JRA & leader of original design team said: “It is tremendously exciting to see One Great St Helen’s being given a new lease of life after almost 30 years. Its reinvention provides a building which is a small jewel in the heart of the Eastern Cluster. It has been cleverly repurposed with excellent new amenities and provides a unique identity for a wide range of city occupiers.”