Marlborough Fine Art, Westminster

MFA London is located in an eighteenth century terrace on the foundations of Clarendon House in Mayfair, with a five storey 1950s extension at the rear. The first floor offices made way for a second gallery, Marlborough Contemporary, and we developed a further floor of rentable offices on the roof to offset the construction costs.

The original structure had been heavily damaged in the second world war, so a new steel skeleton was threaded through the building, the foundations were lowered and the internal walls rebuilt. This was done while keeping the art gallery and offices open for business.

Long & Kentish designed the new circulation core to provide step free access to every level and knit together the original house and rear extension. To mitigate escape issues from the extra storey the main staircase was protected by an innovative pressurisation and smoke extraction system.