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Edward Williams Architects transformed a derelict, partly converted stable in Paddington into a three-storey workplace by repairing the historic brick shell, inserting a new steel frame and making the ground floor do several jobs at once. A kitchen doubles as reception, meeting and breakout space; a glazed conference room can open to the cobbled mews; and the stairs, rather than a conventional lobby or lift, organize the compact building.
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The project, completed in November 2018, was developed for a family-owned fund investing in sustainable agriculture and forestry. Architectural Record’s January 6, 2020 feature describes an office designed toward a carbon-neutral aim, but reports no measured carbon, energy or certification results. That distinction is essential: the published evidence documents design intentions and construction choices, not verified operational performance.
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Project at a glance
| Place | Paddington, London |
|---|---|
| Building | Historic stable converted to an office/workplace |
| Size and form | Three stories; 2,260 square feet |
| Completion | November 2018 |
| Client | Family-owned fund investing in sustainable agriculture and forestry; the client is not named |
| Architect | Edward Williams Architects; Edward Williams, principal in charge; Victoria Thong, associate |
| Engineer | Cundall |
| General contractor | Lengard |
| Cost | Withheld by Architectural Record |
These project facts come from Architectural Record’s account. The publication does not provide a street address.
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From abandoned shell to usable structure
The starting point was not a clean historic building waiting for decoration. The stable had been abandoned midway through an earlier change from residence to offices. Architectural Record describes a crumbling shell and a partial steel frame occupying the space where a mansard roof should have been. That incomplete condition made the project both a repair job and a structural insertion.
Repairing the perimeter and adding a frame
The architects restored the perimeter brickwork rather than treating it as disposable enclosure. Inside the existing volume, the team installed a new steel frame in the cavity. That frame supports two new upper office levels, allowing the project to gain usable floor area without enlarging the historic outer walls. The approach separates two tasks that are often confused in adaptive reuse: stabilizing and renewing the old fabric, then providing a contemporary load-bearing system for new accommodation.
Reported specifications identify Mercer Steel for the steelwork. The feature does not publish structural calculations or a condition survey, so the account cannot establish how much of the original frame was retained beyond its description of a partial frame and a new one.
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The stairs are the only route to the upper floors. Williams told Architectural Record that the building was too small for an elevator. In this very limited footprint, circulation therefore occupies a deliberate share of the plan instead of being hidden behind a large entrance hall or lift core. The published description of a wheelchair-accessible powder room on the ground floor should not be read as proof that every part of the three-storey building complies with a particular accessibility standard; no such whole-building assessment is supplied.
A ground floor that changes function through the day
The most consequential planning decision is the treatment of the ground floor as a shared working and hospitality zone. Rather than assigning separate rooms to reception, a staff kitchen, an informal meeting area and overflow desks, the design lets one cluster support all of those activities.
The kitchen as reception, breakout room and workspace
The kitchen is arranged as a one-wall preparation zone. It has an oak backsplash and cabinets, a sink set into a stone counter, and an oven. A dining table with benches turns the room into a place for informal meetings and events, while the same surface can support additional work when the office is busy. Because visitors encounter this room first, it also performs the welcoming role normally given to a reception desk.
Williams explains the intention in direct terms: “The office didn’t need a lobby with security and a reception desk. So our approach was to design for transparency. Why not let clients be greeted by a timber table and a coffee machine?” The choice is not simply aesthetic. It removes a single-purpose threshold from a small plan and puts everyday activity where a visitor can see it.
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Conference room beside the kitchen
A conference room sits next to the kitchen and is partly screened with glass. The transparent separation preserves visual connection while giving meetings a degree of enclosure. Folding garage doors allow both the kitchen and conference room to open onto the cobbled mews. Visitors can also enter through a narrow doorway, so the workplace has a direct, informal relationship with the lane rather than relying solely on a formal internal reception sequence.
Restrooms as a compact service zone
An L-shaped restroom enclosure is positioned between the shared ground-floor rooms and the stair. The arrangement contains a communal vanity, an enclosed water closet and a wheelchair-accessible powder room with its own sink. Grouping these functions into one zone keeps plumbing and service space together while preserving the kitchen and meeting room as the most visible parts of the plan. The description establishes the presence of the accessible powder room, but it does not specify dimensions, door clearances or an accessibility code review.
Making a small footprint feel less constrained
At 2,260 square feet, the workplace cannot afford rooms that sit idle for most of the week. Williams summarizes the planning rule as, “We usually like to get two or three uses out of a space.” The kitchen’s overlapping roles are the clearest example, but the principle also appears in the meeting room’s ability to connect to the mews and in the ground floor’s combination of arrival, social activity and work.
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That overlap does not mean every area is permanently open. Glass screens, the enclosed restroom elements and the stair location establish boundaries where privacy or service functions require them. The result is a sequence of spaces that can be read as domestic in scale without becoming a house: a table for gathering, a working kitchen, a meeting room and a visible stair all share one compact level.
Williams adds, “It is possible to design efficiently and still provide a spatial feeling.” In this project, that feeling comes from keeping the old brick perimeter legible, exposing the ordinary rituals of an office and using openings to extend the ground floor toward the mews. It is not produced by adding surplus circulation or a large lobby.
Materials, finishes and environmental measures
Retained fabric and restrained finish
Architectural Record reports that many construction materials were locally sourced or recycled and received minimal finishes. This description supports a strategy of reducing new material and avoiding layers that would conceal the building’s character. It does not provide a material inventory, recycled-content percentages or a calculation of embodied carbon, so the environmental significance of each product cannot be quantified from the published account.
The project specifications list Cavendish Joinery timber joists, Komfort glass partitions and Corestone flooring, alongside the Mercer Steel structure. These are credits for this particular building, not product recommendations or evidence that the same choices will suit another conversion.
Heating, daylight and ventilation
The former gas boiler was replaced with an electric boiler supplying radiant heat beneath the floors. The design also includes efficient windows, operable skylights and garage doors that can support passive cooling. Together, those measures address heat delivery, daylight and natural ventilation without changing the basic compact plan.
The garage doors have a dual role: they are large openings to the mews for the kitchen and conference room, and they can help release warm air when conditions permit. Operable skylights provide another high-level opening, while efficient windows are intended to reduce heat loss compared with less effective units. The account does not state window performance values, boiler capacity, control strategy or the proportion of heating supplied by renewable electricity.
Carbon-neutral aim versus verified result
The client and architect developed the workplace toward a carbon-neutral office, according to the Architectural Record feature. The publication supplies no carbon accounting, operational energy data, post-occupancy study or independent certification. It is therefore accurate to describe carbon neutrality as an attributed design aim, supported by the listed measures, rather than as a demonstrated outcome.
Hospitality as an architectural strategy
The office’s public face is deliberately informal. Williams says, “We talked a lot about the image they wanted to project.” For a fund associated with sustainable agriculture and forestry, the desired image is expressed through material honesty and visible use rather than a security desk and a controlled lobby. A timber table and coffee machine communicate welcome, while the kitchen keeps hospitality close to daily work.
This strategy also makes the building legible to visitors. Someone entering through the narrow doorway can see the shared rooms instead of being stopped at a reception counter. When the folding doors are open, the office acknowledges the cobbled mews as part of its social setting. When they are closed, the same rooms remain usable as enclosed workplace accommodation.
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The project depended on a division of responsibilities typical of a small but technically demanding adaptive-reuse job. Edward Williams led as principal in charge, with Victoria Thong as associate. Cundall served as engineer and Lengard as general contractor. The named specification credits are reported as follows:
| Element | Reported specification |
|---|---|
| Steel structure | Mercer Steel |
| Timber joists | Cavendish Joinery |
| Glass partitions | Komfort |
| Flooring | Corestone |
Architectural Record withheld the project cost. No schedule, tender sum or construction budget is available in the feature, so cost efficiency cannot be inferred from the small area or the reuse of the existing shell.
Practical lessons for adaptive-reuse workplace design
Repair first, then insert what the old building cannot provide
The project treats the brick perimeter as an asset to be repaired and the new upper floors as a separate contemporary intervention. This sequence respects the historic envelope while making the structure capable of supporting current use. It avoids pretending that an incomplete building can function without substantial new work.
Give shared rooms more than one job
A kitchen that also receives visitors, hosts meetings and provides overflow desks can justify its area throughout the day. The same logic applies to doors and thresholds: opening the conference room and kitchen to the mews extends their usefulness beyond fixed internal boundaries.
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The project’s hospitality is built from a table, benches, a coffee machine and a working kitchen. These elements carry the client’s desired image without a separate representational lobby. In a compact office, everyday functions can do the branding work that larger projects assign to reception architecture.
State environmental performance precisely
Electric radiant heating, efficient windows, operable skylights, passive-cooling openings and low-finish or reused materials are concrete design measures. They should be reported as measures. Without measured energy or carbon results, however, they cannot establish that the building achieved carbon neutrality.
What remains undisclosed
The published project feature does not identify the client, give a street address or disclose cost. It also does not provide measured carbon emissions, energy consumption, certification, structural calculations, detailed accessibility dimensions or post-occupancy findings. Those omissions do not diminish the documented design decisions; they define the limits of what can responsibly be concluded about performance.
Why the conversion matters
Edward Williams Architects’ Paddington workplace is a compact example of adaptive reuse in which structural repair, selective new construction and domestic-scale hospitality are inseparable. The restored brick shell supplies continuity, the inserted steel frame makes two upper office levels possible, and the ground floor earns its area by serving several audiences and activities. Its environmental story is credible as an intention supported by specific measures, but not as a verified carbon-neutral result. The project’s strongest lesson is therefore practical: a small historic building can feel generous when structure, arrival, meeting, hospitality and work are planned as overlapping uses rather than isolated rooms.
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