The project site occupied the ground floor of a building which had begun life as a neighbouring pair of Victorian terraces, containing commercial premises at ground and basement, and residential above. In the early part of the century, the upper floors were demolished and replaced with a modern three-storey structure across the full footprint of the site, bearing onto the original ground floor walls and basement structure below.

The first key task in the project was to develop a sound understanding of the existing building, how it had been modified in the past and which elements comprised the current loadbearing structure. Structural interventions were then developed to allow the ground floor space to be opened up by demolishing two loadbearing walls, whilst maximising clear headroom in the new space and preserving the historic character & features.

Fred Miles provided all structural engineering input to the project whilst employed at Entuitive (formerly TALL Engineers), working collaboratively with the architect and contractor to develop solutions for the structural works which could be completed on site quickly and within budget.