Issue 38 Summer web 23 - Flipbook - Page 59
Recreating History
One Bishopsgate Plaza (1BGP) is a large scheme designed
by PLP Architecture, that was completed a couple of years
ago. The project delivered a new 43 story tower which
will home Europe’s first Pan Pacific Hotel, private
residences, retail spaces and the creation of a large new
public plaza on Bishopsgate. The development has
opened up pedestrian routes between Devonshire Row,
Devonshire Square and Bishopsgate leading to Liverpool
Street Station and has included the regeneration of part
of the local Conservation Area. The tower sits to the
eastern side of the site adjacent to the buildings along
Devonshire Row (1-17) and Bishopsgate (142-146).
These are the historic elements of the project, which the
architects have empathetically brought into the new
scheme resulting in a dynamic juxtaposition of old and
new that works brilliantly. The overarching, new, geodesic
glass roof that brings the historic buildings into a
contemporary context is resonantly effective to this end.
As with most of London the history of this specific area,
Devonshire Row and adjoining Bishopsgate, is rich and
dates back to pre-Roman times. In more recent years it
has become noted for its skyscrapers with 22 Bishopsgate,
Heron Tower, 99 Bishopsgate, 100 Bishopsgate and now
One Bishopsgate Plaza, with the Gherkin nestled in the
middle like the smaller sibling. This fairly rapidly evolving
Below, Bishopsgate complete
urban landscape of tall buildings within such a small area
makes protecting the history all the more important there is a danger otherwise that it will all but disappear.
Devonshire Row is a narrow street that joins Bishopsgate
to Devonshire Square. The south side of the street, which
formed part of the 1BGP project was built in 1879 as a
series of brick warehouses although it has the appearance
of a pretty Victorian terrace. Part of the façade at the
Bishopsgate end is Bath stone, with the remaining in brick
with Portland dressings. The façade has been painstakingly restored to preserve the Victorian character,
including the treatment of the shop fronts, and public
access routes created to pass from Devonshire Row to the
new public plaza.
At this time and for the preceding 100 odd years or so the
area was quite industrial. In 1768 the East India Company
started buying up properties in the area and established
its warehouses including the Bengal Warehouse and then
owned much of what is now the Devonshire Square
Estate. In the 1830s the warehouses were sold to the St
Katherine Dock Company and then sold again in 1909
to the Port of London Authority.