- TOTAL COST
- £71M
- COMPLETED
- 2018
- DURATION
- 1Y10M
- RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
Project description
The ‘Your New Town Hall’ project has rejuvenated Lambeth’s historic town hall, preserving its features and making it more open and accessible to residents.
Split into three, the programme of works includes:
Driven by the council’s ambition to provide a modern, energy efficient workspace while increasing public access and community use, this refurbishment has reinvigorated a Grade II listed Edwardian landmark, bringing it back to its former glory. Modern alterations that masked its original character were stripped out, with traditional trades refurbishing original features and specialists ensuring new materials matched the original. The result is a stunning building that provides a sense of place and civic pride.
Split into three, the programme of works includes:
- Extensive restoration of the existing 8,500 sqm, Grade II listed town hall building
- A new build civic office with energy centre, creating 11,000m2 of new energy efficient workspace for Lambeth Council
- Refurbishment of an old print facility into The Press building, a 950 sqm facility providing storage for 300 bicycles, toilets, showers and changing facilities, plus commercial space and an electrical substation
Driven by the council’s ambition to provide a modern, energy efficient workspace while increasing public access and community use, this refurbishment has reinvigorated a Grade II listed Edwardian landmark, bringing it back to its former glory. Modern alterations that masked its original character were stripped out, with traditional trades refurbishing original features and specialists ensuring new materials matched the original. The result is a stunning building that provides a sense of place and civic pride.
Responsible business
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Enhancing communities
The buildings delivered in this project are providing much-needed new community spaces. While under construction, the project benefitted from a standalone website (www.yournewtownhall.org), which shared a timeline of project milestones and images for those in the community to track its progress. 
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Improving The Environment
The project uses renewable energy from photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the Assembly Halls, together with a site-wide energy centre that allows upgrades the traditional building and technologies to modern standards.
More than 95 per cent of the waste produced on the project has been diverted from landfill and recycled.
Challenges
Installing mechanical heating, ventilation and cooling was a major challenge, requiring a reconfiguration of perimeter rooms and offices so that ducts could be re-routed without compromising the vaulted ceilings. By serving two floors from the basement and two floors from the roof, the original character of the ground and first floors was completely undisturbed. A new timber casing was installed to the perimeter of rooms to hide the new fan coil units and other electrical services.
Logistically the project was challenging as there was only one entrance in and out of site to serve the construction of each of the buildings (refurbished Grade II listed town hall, new build civic office and refurbished The Press building). The single entrance also had to be shared with Electric Brixton, a live music venue in the middle of the construction site which remained open for the full duration of the project, making logistics extremely challenging.
Inside the town hall there were some extensive structural alterations including changing the load path of the structure. For this, new steel beams of up to 20 metre length had to be incorporated. The logistics of physically getting the long unflexible materials into a 110 year old building brought challenges.
Awards
Gold Considerate Constructors Award
'Preservation and rejuvenation' - Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2018
