Tottenham Street

52 Tottenham Street is designed as a high-quality, sustainable, contextual, and dignified addition to the Charlotte Street Conservation Area that utilises the rare opportunity afforded by its neglected site to provide new homes and affordable workspace in the heart of Fitzrovia

DSDHA’s intimate understanding and appreciation of the local character led to a design that is predicated on returning the dignity that the existing building once enjoyed by reinstating and reinterpreting its former Georgian sensibilities.

Caught between two much larger commercial buildings, the street-facing façade of 52 Tottenham Street is taken up to the shoulder height of its immediate neighbours before stepping back to form a series of scalloped terraces. The entire façade appears to have been draped in a ‘veil’ of dark bronze metal louvres that enclose double-height loggia spaces. Openings in the metal veil are articulated to respect the classically derived Georgian proportioning system that gives the Charlotte Street conservation area its celebrated character, whilst mediating between the competing proportions of the buildings either side.

Standing in contrast to the London stock brick that is the predominant materiality of the area, this metal façade achieves an intellectual integrity between the building’s internal steel-frame structure and its external skin. It provides a contemporary reinterpretation of the nearby Georgian architecture whilst integrating solar shading to the south-facing living spaces behind.

A commercial unit at ground floor – to be let as affordable workspace – sits below four residential units, including a family-sized, 3-bedroom unit, all on a site that is just five metres wide. Given the constrained proportions of the site, a duplex typology with double height living spaces has been developed for the three lower units. This typology exploits the benefit of the south facing aspect, maximises the potential for natural daylight and ventilation, and creates a sense of generosity through volume despite the constrained area. The carefully considered interior layouts are complemented by generous external amenity spaces - including terraces at every level of the four-storey family unit - with planting integrated into the façade to offer visual green amenity to both the residents of the building and passers by.