Woods Bagot recently obtained planning consent on behalf of Delancey for the redevelopment of Rolls and Arnold Houses and No 8 Breams Buildings to create 37,000m² of new office accommodation over nine floors. The building is located in the Chancery Lane Conservation area and opposite the Grade II* Listed Public Records Office.

The new building employs a contemporary architectural treatment sympathetic to its surroundings, whilst still achieving a thoroughly modern office building providing plenty of natural light and designed to the latest BCO guidelines.

The final scheme, however, achieved an increase of net area on the site of more than one and a half times the existing, well exceeding the viability criteria for a redevelopment of the site. The building has been designed to accommodate corporate and professional occupiers and can be altered, by infill of the secondary atrium, for a financial user for dealing accommodation.

On the limits for a three-core plan, the tightly planned layout achieves 90% net to internal gross area on a typical floor, with 87% of the net as usable area after subtraction of primary circulation space.

The façade pays homage to its neo-gothic neighbour, with a stone clad structure providing a vertical emphasis at the corner.

On the North and South elevations, bay windows are designed with side panels of stone to provide the maximum of stone finish to the oblique view, while actually maintaining a substantial area of full height glazing when viewed from inside or at 90 degrees from outside.