Royal Exchange Buildings occupies a unique position at the heart of the City of London, a stone’s throw from the Bank of England.

GTH/ were asked to reimagine the building’s interior and given its Grade II listed status – engage with it in a respectful and appropriate manner.  At the same time, it was important to conceive a design that would appeal to a market that could be difficult to define, in that there is an idea but not a guarantee of the sector for which the space would appeal. To this end, we looked to anticipate the type of business that would be interested in making this building its new home - pursuing an aspirational high quality solution which optimised the building’s innate qualities, i.e. high ceilings and dramatic tall windows - considering future users as broadly as possible with a light focus on the finance sector and all that includes from fintech to sector specific media.

The scheme involved the comprehensive refurbishment of all upper floors along with upgrades to the reception area and retail space.

Our design strategy enhances what is an elegant ‘set piece’ with a carefully considered contemporary veneer along with a comprehensive upgrade to building services - significantly reducing the carbon foot print and achieving BREEAM Excellent accreditation.

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