McLaren Construction has been appointed by O&H Properties to build the circa £60 million first phase of a Foster & Partners designed development on the corner of New Bond Street and Grafton Street in London's West End.
The seven-storey, 5,400 square metre prime retail and office development includes lower ground, ground and first floor retail space with five storeys of office and event space above. The design for the Mayfair Conservation Area includes a striking precast concrete and brick façade with curved triple-glazed bay windows and a zinc shingle roof.
A complex three-storey basement provides retailers with a lower ground floor and two levels of basement beneath. Our top-down construction programme delivers time, cost and safety benefits, enabling the construction team to keep to programme in a busy area of Mayfair.
We will cast the central section of the ground floor slab to enable the cores to be built at the same time as excavating down and casting the basement floor slabs and liner walls. An extensive temporary works scheme includes 33m deep 1.2m diameter piles and 15m steel plunge columns to support the cores and ground floor slab, allowing the basement box and jump forming of cores to happen simultaneously.
A tight corner site in a busy location requires extensive coordination and planning. We have worked closely with the City of Westminster to develop a logistics strategy and traffic management plan to minimise impact on the local road network. A large-scale temporary ramp facilitates deliveries down to site level from Grafton Street and gives access for the piling rig and crawler crane. Just in time deliveries preserve limited material storage space.
The Grade II-listed shopfront of Wartski jewellers at 14 Grafton Street has been dismantled and will be reassembled in Barlow Place during a later phase of the redevelopment. The final mixed-use redevelopment of the site between New Bond Street, Grafton Street and Bruton Street will feature new homes, a hotel, office and retail space, bars and restaurants.
Managing Director for London & South, Darren Gill, comments, "There is a deep and complex basement to be constructed before this beautiful new building rises above Grafton Street. We know from considerable experience of working in the Oxford Street area that this technical feat will be pulled off in a tight site surrounded by a lot of activity. Occupiers and passers by will see a smart new addition to the West End without ever realising how precisely planned and engineered it needs to be."
The project is McLaren Construction's latest contribution to the revitalisation of London's West End. McLaren is refurbishing the former House of Fraser at 318 Oxford Street and the flagship Oxford Circus store at 214 Oxford Street. Past projects include 58-60 Berners Street, combining four buildings to create a 7,000 sq m mixed development, the redevelopment of the former Virgin/Zavvi store to create a 13,100 sq m mixed use scheme and an eight-storey building between 11-12 Hanover Square and Oxford Street offering 4,500 sq m of office accommodation and 1,400 sq m of retail space. McLaren refurbished 33 Glasshouse Street behind a Grade II listed façade for Hermes Investment Management.
The 105-week construction programme is due to complete in Spring 2026. Key subcontractors on the project will be:
- Groundwork, civils and concrete for the basement box: McGee
- Steel frame: BHC
- Pre-cast façade: Techrete
- Glazing: Seele
- Roofing: All Metal Roofing
