In 2015 Pilbrow & Partners was commissioned to prepare redevelopment proposals for 127 Kensington High Street where Kensington High Street meets Wrights Lane.

The proposals remodel the bleak 1970s building to transform the quality of its architecture, public realm and internal working environment. They will also improve connectivity to Kensington High Street Underground station through the creation of a new retail arcade, linking to Wrights Lane.

The existing building is a purpose-built department store built in the 1970s but occupied principally with offices. The retail is poorly configured and routes to the adjacent Kensington High Street Underground Station are informal through the ground floor Boots unit.

The existing building is recognised as being of low architectural quality and its large, blank ground floor frontages detracting from the public realm along Wrights Lane. The orthogonal planning of the existing building breaks the alignment of the historic street wall, leaving awkward residual spaces on this frontage.

The proposals restore the definition of the urban block with new facades of Roman brick and Portland Stone. The building scale along this frontage is modulated as a series of bays – a remediation of the relentless mass of the existing building and a restoration of its civic nature.