The Farmiloe building is an existing light industrial development within the Charterhouse Square Conservation Area, and is Grade II Listed. The building, completed in 1868, replaces one that burnt to the ground. The intention is to redevelop the site to provide commercial offices in the existing building with ground level retail and also a new build commercial office all linked by a full height lightwell running the length of the building between old and new.

The Fire Surgery were given the opportunity to join the high profile design team led by FCBS. The Challenge was to develop a fire strategy that would not be constrained by the British Standards, but would seek out creative solutions that would work for both the existing heritage building and also the addition of a new office building on the site.

Of particular interest to the fire strategy was an original timber feature stair connecting the ground first and second floors. The Fire Surgery made an important decision early in the design process to eliminate this from the escape strategy design, thus allowing the architects to think of the stair in terms of its historic architectural value.

The site is an unusual shape and has a deep plan with no ingress of egress at the rear. The Fire Surgery devised a solution for escape and fire fighting which conjoined the main escape stairs at basement level and provided one single exit point on St John Street to minimise the impact on the important façade.

Client: Standard Life/Tim Farmiloe

Architect: AWW/FCBS