Squire & Partners returns to 78 St James’s Street

On the corner of St James’s and Little St James’s Street in Westminster, Squire & Partners has returned to 78 St James’s Street for a refurbishment and extension – 20 years since its first intervention at the storied building. Spread across 100,000 sq ft, the former members’ club and private HQ building has been transformed into a multi-tenanted workspace for BentallGreenOak.

Made up of two parts – a Grade II* listed Victorian structure and a contemporary architectural addition – the brief was to turn the property into a workspace fit for a variety of users, with luxe amenities, wellness facilities and a landscaped rooftop terrace, showing the possibilities that adaptive reuse offers. “Our design celebrates [the] unique features in order to maximise the building’s character and charm,” says Tim Gladstone, Partner of Squire & Partners, “contemporary elements that complement this unique setting have been introduced to create a modern clubhouse atmosphere, reminiscent of the building’s original use as a members’ club.”

A double-fronted reception is the centrepiece of ‘The Saloon’. Reinstated as a key circulation route between the historical building and modern west wing extension, the room is filled with contemporary furniture upholstered in bold colours – nodding to the richness of the intricate heritage frescos, the floor tiling and the original dome on the fourth floor. Elsewhere, a pre-existing atrium serves as an additional entrance point, with a widened extension to evoke a grander sense of arrival. Inside, a comfortable welcome area features a circular suede sofa arrangement and round coffee tables on a stone floor, inspired by patterns found in historical drawings of the library that previously occupied part of the site. A discreet bronze welcome plinth and pair of bronze and suede benches, designed by Squire & Partners in collaboration with Benchmark, offer an alternative to the increasingly antiquated formal reception desk.

Beside the main reception, Squire & Partners turned a former members’ club lounge into the ‘Morning Room’ – a social space suited to casual meetings and laptop-based working. Here colours draw on the nearby Royal Parks with greens, blues, reds, greys and flashes of regal gold in bouclé, velvet cord, moiré and tapestry fabrics. A freestanding bar, banquette seating, consoles and tables – also designed by Benchmark – zone the space, enabling flexibility and simultaneous use by various groups. Overhead, a chandelier comprised of light rods within a bronze frame matches those found within the atrium, creating a through-thread within the ground floor spaces and referencing the classical chandeliers that hung from the ceilings in a past life.

In the west wing extension, eight floors of malleable, state-of-the-art workspace have been refurbished and finished to CAT A standard to create large, optimised floorplates, configurable according to need. Services have been replaced and upgraded to maximise comfort throughout the building and the fourth and fifth floors now benefit from sunny private terraces with seating and planters.

On the sixth floor, once discordant areas have been consolidated to create a swish 3,500 sq ft rooftop pavilion and terrace with sweeping views across Westminster and Green Park. Terrace furniture and integrated seating create a multi-use space for meetings, socialising and large events, whilst lush and abundant landscaping (including a living green wall and large planters) offer a connection to nature. Internally, the new pavilion features banquette seating and a bespoke bar serving daytime snacks and evening drinks, providing an additional work environment away from the desk or meeting room.

The vaulted lower ground floor and basement floors of the west wing extension house a wellness suite, health facility room, deli and multipurpose area known as the Collab Space. Designed to have a positive impact on those working in the building, the wellness suite features a treatment table, exercise areas and provides a discrete consultation room for occupiers to host drop-in clinics. In the basement guests will discover luxury changing rooms, showers and lockers, along with 150 secure cycle racks, folding cycle storage and a bicycle maintenance station. All facilities within 78 St James’ Street are available to access 24/7.