Landsec is in discussions with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama over plans to open up a Victorian bath house in the City of London for community and cultural use.
The Grade II listed bath house at 7-8 Bishopsgate Churchyard, EC2, is currently used as a private events space. However, Landsec plans an overhaul of its usage as part of the redevelopment of 55 and 65 Old Broad Street, plans for which were lodged earlier this year.
New planning documents focused solely on the listed building said the REIT is exploring a partnership with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama that would “celebrate the City’s heritage” by providing free space, events and activities in the bath house, creating “a new performing arts venue in the heart of the City, showcasing London’s best emerging talent”.
The REIT said its plans explored ways in which “the public realm treatment could reveal, conceal, celebrate or shelter the space created below”.
These included “a wellness studio with coloured skylights and reflective surfaces intended to improve the light quality in the space, an exhibition space or a garden restaurant that opens up towards the public space”, it added.
The building will become fully accessible to the public via a platform lift, set outside the original Victorian footprint of the site.
“The bath house will remain as a separately functioning space, joined to a larger building but physically separate internally as in its original construction,” the planning documents said. “This represents a positive development to the existing setting of the bath house, which in itself was a change to the original conception of the building.
“This approach, and the restoration of rich Victorian decoration, will allow the bath house to be read as a distinct object in the dense urban context, as in its original setting.”
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