Arding & Hobbs

The Arding & Hobbs building in Clapham Junction is an early 19th century department store and much-loved example of retail architecture of that era.
Stiff + Trevillion Architects were tasked with the refurbishment of this former local landmark for developers W.RE. Their careful intervention restores the tired original building to its former glory, preserving some of the unique original features and through the addition of a new rooftop pavilion.

The building provides office spaces to the existing floor plates above retail units at street level and a new roof pavilion set back from the edges to create a roof terrace providing external amenity space for the workspace occupants.

FMDC Ltd provided façade engineering services for the design of the pavilion striking scalloped copper rainscreen cladding and the new extension atrium rooflight, breathing new life into the old building. As the existing roof structure could not support the loads and the movement requirements from the new stick curtain walling, the new pavilion façade is hung, rather than bottom-supported, onto the new CLT roof structure.

Our involvement continued during construction in a CMT role to W.RE. The glazing and pavilion rainscreen cladding were procured and installed by OAG Ltd and the timber windows by George Barnsdale, with Knight Harwood as Main Contractor delivering the project.

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The Arding & Hobbs building is one of several successful collaborations between FMDC Ltd and Stiff + Trevillion Architects and the result is a revived iconic building fit for the 21st century.

Photography by Richard Chivers