This project at 89 The High Street, Billericay will deliver over 100m2 of modern retail/commercial space and 9 new homes into the heart of this popular Essex town. The project comprises a refurbishment of the ground floor of the main building and its existing one-storey extension to the rear, and the building of 2 new, three-storey, three-bedroom houses, carefully proportioned and sited in the yard to the rear. The houses will be finished in slate, white weatherboarding, and grey brick, in keeping with other buildings in the neighbourhood.

We will raise the extension at the rear by one floor to accommodate 7 new apartments varying in size, 3 on the ground floor and 4 on the first. New windows will extend the architectural language of the original building back along the extension, and the first-floor apartments will have private amenity spaces and mezzanine levels in the roof space. The two new houses will have their own gardens at the rear and parking at the front.

This project illustrates how conservation and construction can work together - reducing the carbon footprint compared to demolition, and leveraging the carbon already embodied in a historical structure. This approach is emblematic of our belief in urban regeneration and renewal, and the need to bring homes back into our urban centres.