New Staircase, Great Pulteney St, Soho, London

Our clients had a long lease on a substantial property in central Soho, and enjoyed the right to a means of escape across the roof terrace of an adjacent property. Unfortunately the adjoining freeholders wished to redevelop their building, so removing our client’s escape. The solution developed by the Architect was to create a new external staircase at the rear of the building that allowed the upper floors to escape onto the rear first floor flat roof, and then down to the street. This made the building a self-contained entity once more.

The primary structure of the stair forms four vertical vierendeel trusses combined to form a tower structure, laterally braced only at roof level. The tower sits on a pair of carriage beams spanning over the first floor level flat roof.

Architect BDA Partnership