A sensitive residential development that secures the setting of Southampton’s medieval town wall.
A poorly designed – and now redundant – 1980’s office building in the centre of Southampton impacted heavily on the setting of the Old Town Wall, a scheduled ancient monument that runs down the length of the site joining the town centre to the harbour.
The approved permitted development scheme demonstrated how new homes could be accommodated in the former office building, but the questions we were repeatedly asking ourselves were:
Does it do enough to take advantage of this unique opportunity, and
Does it do enough for Southampton?
The successful redevelopment of the site required us to carefully balance development viability with enhancing the setting of an ancient scheduled monument and re-establishing a strategic infrastructure link within the city.
Developing within the prescribed planning envelope of four storeys, whilst significantly increasing the public realm to improve the setting of the of the city wall, just did not stack up.
The principle of enabling development is well established as a tool to facilitate the protection and enhancement of heritage assets and we engaged in proactive consultation with both Historic England and Southampton City Council to explore the options for achieving a successful high-quality development for Southampton. These positive discussions centred around a trade-off between the height of the development and the provision of an enlarged and enhanced public realm to provide an appropriate setting for the city wall.
Southampton is a fantastic place to live. Increased flexibility in UK working patterns is changing where we choose to life, and there is growing demand for sustainable, flexible, high-quality residential developments that increase population density and help to enliven and regenerate our city centres.
The new Friary House development responds to this challenge; providing 88 contemporary apartments in an 8-storey building that sets a new standard for residential development in central Southampton.
Redefining the proposed building footprint and providing an appropriate setting for the Old Town Wall, represents a significant improvement in how this historic asset is represented in its local context. The introduction of a pocket park alongside Friary House, as well as utilising a contemporary but contextual material palette allows the Old Town wall to be celebrated rather than overshadowed by its relationship with the existing office building.
Full planning permission was granted for the Friary House development in December 2022.
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