London
Morelands & Riverdale
The Grade II listed Hampton Water Works was built in Hampton in 1852 by Joseph Quick to extract water away from London’s heavily polluted river. By 1950, and with the introduction of diesel, the coal fired engine houses were decommissioned and the large chimneys were removed.
The site was left in disrepair until 2012, when it was purchased by Blackbottle, with the vision of restoring it and turning it into ‘The DNA Campus’, a development to benefit start-up biotechnology businesses.
Client: Touchlight
Location: Hampton, London
Sector: Life sciences
Architect: Chapman Architects
Completion Date: 2023
Other Team Members: WHP
Challenge & Solution
This project involves the fit out of the two Morelands Arcades and the Engine House to provide new laboratories, offices, meeting rooms and amenity space, including the construction of new foundations and new suspended floors within all three buildings. The architecture is sensitively designed to complement the historic building, keeping many of its original features exposed.
The history of the site makes it a unique and interesting building to work on, and one that brings its own challenges.
Our design is based on extensive research into historical drawings and record information, to unpick the various alterations that had been carried out during the life of the building. This helped us understand the make-up of the current structure, from original features to later additions.
