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Bart’s Square

London, UK

º£½ÇÊÓƵ played a key role in enabling the transformation of a constrained and underutilised urban site into a vibrant, connected mixed-use destination at the heart of the City of London. 

This piece of prime City of London land, previously owned by the neighbouring St Bartholomew’s Hospital, was purchased by Helical plc more than a decade ago with a long-term vision for creating a new, vibrant mixed-use site. 

The site, which previously housed a range of ancillary hospital buildings and nurses’ accommodation, had for a long time been an underutilised backwater sandwiched between Smithfield Market, St Bartholomew’s Hospital and St Bartholomew the Great church. The area was defined by the existing street grid and dominated by on street parking. 

The developer’s vision was to transform this area into a new mixed-use district, with offices, apartments, and retail set around a new pedestrianised public square. 

We enabled planning approval by coordinating transport, infrastructure and public realm strategies, unlocking a constrained City of London site.  

Our team reconfigured highways and utilities to create a pedestrian‑focused square, transforming connectivity and enhancing the wider urban environment. 

Our experts developed integrated strategies for servicing, waste and movement, balancing operational needs with high-value commercial opportunities.  

We delivered a cohesive enabling framework across disciplines, reducing risk and establishing the foundations for a successful, long-term mixed-use development.  

Challenge

Unlocking the existing street grid and the area’s reliance on on-street parking was key to delivering the new public square – a unifying area of public space that was vital to the place making strategy. 

Proposals for the 3.2 acre site have delivered 21,000m² of office, 2,500m² of retail, 236 residential units and significant improvements to the public realm. º£½ÇÊÓƵ was commissioned to advise on infrastructure, transport and mobility, waste and inclusive design – all key elements to ensuring the development successfully made it through the planning process to fruition. 

The scheme is focussed around a large central square – a unifying area of public space that was key to the place-making strategy behind the largest regeneration project in the City of London for almost 20 years. 

Our transport team produced the transport assessment for the Planning Application and was involved in a series of public consultation events. 

Working with the City of London Highways Department our highways team developed a highways scheme delivered through Section 278 to alter and improve the existing road layout and Section 38 in order to create new roads. This resulted in the creation of the public square and improved access to existing and proposed buildings.

Solution

We produced a full Transport Assessment and contributed to the Environmental Impact Assessment – both key aspects to the success of the planning process.   

Our main focus, given the proximity of excellent public transport links, was the encouragement of sustainable travel, through provision of minimal car parking, extensive cycle parking and the much-enhanced public realm. 

We supported the wider design team to negotiate the complex planning process, which included a considerable amount of public consultation. Key to the success of this was an analysis of current parking and the development of a predicted parking strategy for the site. 

We analysed the potential impacts on all public transport modes in the area, taking into account the cumulative development of other schemes in the district, as well as assessing pedestrian comfort on the pavements in the historically narrow road grid. 

The nearby Albion Way was significantly re-routed to make the site work effectively for traffic, and our experts provided specialist Section 278 advice on changes to highways to allow the creation of a public square, built around a group of mature plane trees. This has provided a clear pedestrian-friendly focal point for the new community.

Appropriate provision for delivery vehicles was an important design consideration and we also provided design advice on the waste strategy and access and facilities for the disabled. 

The waste strategy had to balance both the demands of the local authority – which wanted easy-access waste collection facilities – together with achieving the client’s aspirations to maximise the commercial opportunities for the desirable ground floor spaces. 

Our infrastructure team developed an holistic drainage strategy for the site and made sure that the existing utilities and other subterranean constraints were factored into the design process. We built a 3D digital model of the utilities across the whole site to ensure clashes could be avoided.

Value

º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s multidisciplinary expertise was instrumental in unlocking the potential of this complex site, enabling the vision for Barts Square to move from aspiration to delivery. We provided a coordinated strategy that supported planning approval, reduced risk and created a clear route to delivery. 

Our integrated approach ensured that each design decision contributed to a coherent and functional place, from the reconfiguration of highways and public realm to the seamless integration of utilities and servicing. In doing so, we helped the client balance commercial ambition with the practical demands of operating a dense, mixed-use development in the heart of the City. 

This early-stage leadership laid the foundation for the wider success of Barts Square, transforming a disconnected urban block into a vibrant, pedestrian-focused destination. It also established the conditions for the high-quality buildings that followed, ensuring the development delivers lasting value for the client, the city and its communities. Our facades engineering and inclusive environments experts played a key role in these new developments, building on the early stage enabling works. Their work is explored in the second part of this project case study.