166 Tower Bridge Road - Residential Development, Bermondsey

This site imposed some important constraints on the structural design. The first being that the local planners required the existing façade of the original warehouse building to be retained. The second was a 2.5 metre diameter storm drain, passing 6.5 metres below the building.

The façade retention was further complicated by poor ground conditions and a line of mature London Plane trees along the Tower Bridge Road elevation. These trees had caused a settlement in the front façade in excess of 150 millimetres; when the warehouse floor beams were cut away from the wall, they sprang upwards to relieve the strain imposed by the weight of the masonry. To avoid further settlement of the façade we have inserted a reinforced concrete beam at the base of the wall that re-supports the masonry structure using new piled foundations. The same system has been used to support an existing party wall.

The storm drain cuts across a corner of the site, requiring the superstructure to cantilever some 7 metres. This is achieved using a storey height reinforced concrete wall cast in front of the existing party wall, thus maximising net floor areas. The remainder of the building comprises a steel frame supporting pre-cast concrete floors. To minimise the impact of the internal structure, rectangular box section members have been used for many of the floor beams and columns.

Architect Jestico and Whiles Architects