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30 September 2011 09:40
PROPERTY
The Lincolnshire touch at London's most prestigious new address
A Lincolnshire company has played a major role in the construction of one of London's most impressive new buildings.
With a show apartment that’s styled by royalty, The Lancasters faces Hyde Park and is one of the longest and tallest of the stucco-fronted Victorian terraces in London and the sumptuous interiors that now lie behind are one of the most highly prized for big budget home buyers in the capital. Behind the listed façade, the price list starts around £1 million, rising to in excess of £30 million for a four storey apartment with swimming pool and gym. Sales have remained strong since the launch, despite the financial difficulties that have afflicted international markets, boosted by a show apartment that was designed by Lord Linley.
Lincolnshire timber door and window maker George Barnsdale & Sons have used nearly two hundred cubic metres of redwood, 2500 square metres of glass and 3000 litres of paint to create 865 high performance, replica sliding sash windows, balcony doors and sliding doors at the Grade II listed building, having landed a £1.4 million contract. The company have been involved from the start, and were chosen for their mix of heritage and technology, which enabled them to meet planning requirements to recreate the sliding sash timber windows and balcony doors, without any compromise on technical performance.
Paul Howat of developers Northacre says, “In the past we have tried sourcing windows from Eastern Europe but they simply didn’t match up to our quality standards. For The Lancasters, the team at Nilsson Architects started out afresh to find and specify a company that could satisfy the performance and aesthetic criteria, as well as handling the sheer volume involved. Barnsdales were able to offer us the design service we needed, and a good, prefinished product.“
Barnsdale managing director Stephen Wright says, “It’s been a fascinating and challenging project, although we were confident that we were well geared to match up to both the planning requirements and performance with our designs and systems, using high quality ironmongery that looks the part, whilst still delivering great performance. The property market may still be in the doldrums generally, but we are working with other major developers on other major prestige developments in the capital, which reinforces our reputation in this field.”
The French Renaissance style Terrace is 130m long with a 30m high façade and is believed to be the longest in Europe. Originally fifteen very large, separate houses, it was converted to a hotel in the seventies, when much of its interior period detail was lost. It has now been fully restored by developers Northacre and Minerva in a three year £120 million project.
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