Part refurbishment and part new build, Seven Pancras Square provides 30,297 sq ft of BREEAM Excellent office space, club rooms and meeting space over five floors. An existing Grade ll listed building, known as the Stanley Building, was refurbished and then a new office building constructed, wrapping around it and joined to the heritage structure by an open, glass atrium.
Originally one of five, high standard, social housing blocks built in the 1860s, the Stanley Building is one of the only remaining examples of early social housing in London. Due to the heritage of the building, the design of Seven Pancras Square was sympathetic to the existing building’s heritage, so unnecessary structural changes were avoided. We refurbished the Stanley Building’s small rooms into meeting rooms and designed the new build section to provide open plan, modern office space.
In order to successfully integrate old and new components of the project, we used Building Information Modelling (BIM) extensively. We took cloud point surveys of the entire existing Stanley building to create detailed structural models of the building, highlighting any walls which were undulating or out of plumb, and allowing us to better plan our works.
Seven Pancras Square has been designed to take full advantage of the environmental benefits of its location. The building’s orientation and solar shading, use of thermal mass through its concrete frame and exposed ceiling soffits, and passive ventilation systems help to provide inertia against temperature changes, contributing to energy efficiency.
BIM helped plan our works, co-ordinating
the different refurbishment and new build aspects
Seven Pancras Square incorporates sustainable technologies to minimise energy use. We installed sensors and low energy lighting to reduce unnecessary electricity use while solar PV panels provide a source of renewable electricity.
Seven Pancras Square, like all buildings part of the King’s Cross Central development, is connected up to the on-site Energy Centre and it’s Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Plant. Producing electricity, and also heat via the District Heating System, Seven Pancras Square has no need for a traditional boiler itself.
Solar panels provide renewable electricity
We installed rainwater harvesting systems to provide water to the roof-top garden and green wall, while within the building smaller cisterns and flow restrictors reduce water the building’s usage.
The retention of the existing Stanley Building structure allowed resources to be saved. We retained the building’s frame and where possible restored and reused internal features such as lime plaster, detailed columns and iron work. The external wrought iron railings on balconies were restored and the brickwork of the façade was repointed and repaired. When a neighbouring North Stanley building was demolished, we salvaged its windows, fireplaces and floorboards for reuse within the Stanley Building to replace missing or damaged features.
Reuse of existing building structure and features saved resources
During the refurbishment of the Stanley Building, the BAM team found old copies of newspapers from 1903 and 1904. These were salvaged and are on display in the building, as a reminder of the building's past.
See our Community Engagement: King's Cross Zone B case study to learn more about our community engagement on this project.
See our community engagement case study to learn more
Working with the King’s Cross conservation area advisory committee, BAM installed a green wall on the western elevation. These climbing plants, along with bat boxes incorporated into the walls, improve biodiversity on the site. The old Victorian roof terrace has also been brought back into use, by adding benches and planted containers to not only create an inviting outdoor space, but also contribute to biodiversity on the site in the long term.
A green wall creates new habitats