White Horse Street

Location: London, UK
Scope: 5 Residential lofts + Retail
Area: 2,350sqm
Stage: Planning permission granted 2012
Budget: £9.25m
Client: Motcomb Estates
Architect: Studio Seilern Architects
Planning Consultant: Daniel Rinsler & Co
Services Engineer: Hilson Moran
Structural Engineer: AKT II
Rights of Light: Drivers Jonas
Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon

Located in one of the last remaining Dickensian Streets in London, 10-11 White Horse Street, is an extraordinary site that required a unique design. The site offers only 17% of its exterior to street frontage, being sandwiched between listed buildings on Shepherd Market, the Hilton Hotel on Half Moon Street and the former Naval & Military Club on Piccadilly.

A mixed-use development comprising five residential lofts with retail spaces at ground level, the challenging brief was to reduce the density of the site, combined with limited street frontage, and result in a different residential building type typical to this area – lofts in Mayfair.

This very insular site posed many difficulties including the lack of natural light, so we had to explore ways in which we could bring in more natural light and create extended views out. 

An internal residential courtyard creates a sense of privacy through a careful landscaping strategy consisting of mature trees, green walls and mirrors.

The courtyard building presents its principal façade at an angle onto the courtyard. Designed on a 6x6m grid, the façade creates a series of six stacked volumes, expressed as sliding back and forth, to create a dynamic exterior and a broken-down scale to the building. Each volume represents one double height living room, with views that face onto the courtyard or the upper levels.

The side party walls are conceived as green walls, with a large mirror introduced in the midst of this, to give a sense of space and add greater depth to the whole site.

Views have been carefully orchestrated to feel as open as possible whilst maintaining privacy. A series of gardens and balcony spaces interact with the internal layouts of the lofts in order to drive natural light into the depth of the plan and frame outward views.