Architect Taha sells controversial London office

Architect Amin Taha has sold his controversial self-designed London headquarters and chosen a new base in the capital. Taha sold the ground and lower ground floors of the seven-storey 15 Clerkenwell Close, EC1, for close to the asking price of £3.2m to an incoming owner-occupier. The office was home to Groupwork, Taha’s architecture practice. The architect has now bought the Tiller Building at 16 Orsman Road in Haggerston on Regent’s Canal, N1, from a private seller. That 14,513 sq ft building had been marketed for £5.5m. Compton acted for Taha on the sale of 15 Clerkenwell Close and for the seller on the Tiller Building. The limestone-clad 15 Clerkenwell Close won two Royal Institute of British Architects awards in 2018 and was described as “brave, ambitious, highly innovative and bespoke”. But it caused controversy locally and in 2018 Taha was told it would have to be demolished as its appearance did not match approved plans. Taha claimed that the plans had been updated but that Islington Council had lost the paperwork. He won an appeal against the demolition order the following year.