Marsham Street/The Home Office, London
2000-2005

The Marsham Street towers situated near to the River Thames in Victoria were built for the Department of the Environment in the 1960's. They created a negative impact on their 2-hectare site and its neighbouring areas for over three decades and were infamously nicknamed 'the three ugly sisters.' They have now been demolished, creating the site for a new Home Office building.

Terry Farrell and Partners have had a longstanding involvement with this site and prepared a series of outline masterplans in the 1990's. In 1998, TFP prepared a scheme to accommodate The Home Office, working within the framework of the existing outline planning permission and statement of development principles. A planning application was submitted to Westminster Planning Department in 2000.

The masterplan for the site addresses the relationship between the existing buildings surrounding the site and the new proposals, which create a new and vibrant civic community with a strong sense of place. Pedestrian connectivity and a generous public realm with open spaces encourages mixed-use planning that promotes inclusiveness and a high quality architectural design. The principle objective of the masterplan is to integrate a large government office building with public spaces orientated towards the street in order to maximise accessibility, rather than being designed as inward-looking, overshadowed courts. Three areas of 'pocket parks' within the site create additional external space and views for office workers. A naturally lit internal 'street' runs the length of the three buildings and has shared resource activities – library, quiet rooms, café, print shop, access to pocket parks and reception. This organising central axis provides a general meeting place for office workers with atria providing excellent levels of natural light.

The design of the Home Office skilfully weaves urban design and architectural objectives in a way that encourages 24-hour activity in the city. The scheme provides not only a flexible and cost-effective state-of-the-art headquarters building but fosters a new community-orientated district, creating diversity within a wider urban context.

The Home Office was completed on time and on budget, despite the stringent conditions of the PFI contract, in January 2005. It has received a number of prestigious Awards, including an RIBA Award for Architecture, a Leading European Architects� Forum and MIPIM 2006 Awards.