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27 May 2016 | Updated 01 January 1970

Sellar has been appointed development manager for the proposed redevelopment of the former Royal Mail sorting office site at Paddington for which Fletcher Priest has designs put forward.

Contracts for the sale of the 1.1 acre site on London Street, W2, adjacent to Paddington mainline station and underground interchange, were exchanged the week commencing May 23. The site is being acquired by Great Western Developments Ltd (GWD) for £111.0m. GWD is a joint venture between the Singaporean hotels and real estate group Hotel Properties Ltd and Anchorage View Pte Ltd.

The site is bounded by London Street to the west, Winsland Street to the north and east, and Praed Street to the south. Winsland Mews separates the former Royal Mail sorting office from the smaller Royal Mail office building that faces on to Praed Street. The two buildings are currently linked at basement level and by a two storey bridge over Winsland Mews.

Sellar, on behalf of GWD, is proposing a major mixed-use scheme comprising residential and retail accommodation. The scheme would substantially improve the urban realm in and around Paddington Station as well as enhance public transport access.

“This will make a major contribution to the area’s regeneration that is being led by the CrossRail project and the redevelopment of St Mary’s Hospital. In our view Paddington is underserved by quality residential and retail and we believe this scheme will help the area’s further rejuvenation,” said Barry Ostle, on behalf of Sellar.

Fletcher Priest

The former Royal Mail sorting office on London Street is located among the sites of some of Britain’s great engineering and historic scientific achievements; Brunel’s GWR terminus, the Grand Union Canal’s Paddington Basin and Alexander Fleming’s ‘penicillin’ laboratory at St Mary’s Hospital. The rejuvenated Paddington Basin is connected to the station by London Street, which has become an increasingly important and attractive thoroughfare with the arrival of the Crossrail interchange.

Fletcher Priest’s design creates modern workspace for growing business sectors in the retained 1908 building, together with 95 apartments on Winsland Street and Winsland Mews, arranged around a landscaped courtyard. Ancillary offices facing Praed Street are linked to the main blocks with a parking floor below street level, and are transformed as 34 apartments that are accessed from the mews.

The externally expressed structure of the new office is generated by the need to straddle a myriad of tunnels and new Bakerloo Line ticket hall below. The deeply modelled structure provides the required lateral stability and shades the floor-to-ceiling glass so that it achieves BREEAM ‘Excellent’ environmental performance targets.

Only a few steps from Paddington and the new Crossrail station, the transformed streets, new landscaped court and extensive roof terraces will make this an attractive and popular place for people to live and for businesses to grow.

Picture: Fletcher Priest’s design 

Article written by Robin Snow | Published 27 May 2016

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