Former Covent Garden seed merchant’s building blossoms with George Barnsdale windows

Project description

When it comes to retrofit and sensitive renovations, George Barnsdale timber windows and doors is recognised as one of the leading providers to commercial projects in the West End of London. The latest project in a conservation area of Covent Garden is no exception.

Grainhouse is a high end office and retail conversion project undertaken by London based architects Barr Gazetas for their client Hines. A former seed merchant’s building dating back to the 1920s, the new Grade A workspace stitches together 5 separate historic buildings around a central atrium. In order to preserve the original character of the buildings, the project has retained and restored the original brick facades and plaster work. It has also benefitted from replacement historic style sash and tilt and turn windows.

“The site has been extended by two storeys, with separate but interlinked extensions on each of the five buildings responding to the massing and historic fabric of each. This allows each building to retain its distinct identity externally, whilst creating a seamless internal floorplate.” Barr Gazetas.

BREEAM Excellent and award winning

A key objective for the building was to be as sustainable as possible achieving BREEAM Excellent. Hines, who are using part of the building as their head office, aim to be net zero by 2040 without buying offsets. One of the ways in which it achieves this on this project is through high performance windows designed, manufactured and installed by George Barnsdale.

The project includes a range of spiral balance sash windows, box sash windows and tilt & turn windows. Finished in traffic white (RAL 9016) they are authentically traditional whilst incorporating high performance glazing designed to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter and the unique sash seal.

George Barnsdale’s spiral balance, box sash and tilt & turn timber windows for our Grainhouse project provided a high quality and low carbon thermal upgrade to the existing buildings while ensuring that both new & existing elements remained in keeping with the historic context of this sensitive conservation area. –

Magnus Wills, Associate Barr Gazetas

The project has been nominated for the BCO Awards and is also a finalist in the MIPIM Awards which celebrates the industry’s most “useful, sustainable and visionary projects.”

Covent Garden in London is home to numerous historic buildings, a growing number of which now have George Barnsdale timber windows. Take a look at some of our other projects in the video below.