Roof extension and terraces planned for Gresse Street and Rathbone Place building

Gresse Street Limited, part of the Great Portland Estates group of companies, has applied to Westminster Council for planning permission for the extension and alteration of 1-15 Gresse Street, and 12-13 Rathbone Place in Fitzrovia.

The building, which is on a roughly L-shaped plot between Gresse Street and Rathbone Place, was from 2005 until 2024 occupied by the Fashion Retail Academy. Before then it was part of Birkbeck College, University of London. The City Lit also held classes in the building.

The entire site was acquired by Great Portland Estates in 2022.

The existing building of brick and Portland stone on a reinforced-concrete frame was designed by H. Courtenay Constantine for Jack Lubliner as a mantle and gown warehouse at Gresse Street with a showroom fronting on to Rathbone Place. The Gresse Street side was built in 1938 and the Rathbone Place part in the 1950s.

“The premise then operated as a warehouse and distribution centre for Norfolk-based shoe and boot company Howlett & White with the Heliodor record company on the upper floors until 1968,” states the design and access statement which includes facsimiles of the architects drawings.

The land was originally developed for housing by brewery owner John Hassell sometime between 1722 and 1752, according to volume 21 of the Survey of London. It acquired the street name after Peter Gespard Gresse bought the land and extended the street north to where it meets Rathbone Place today.

It seems the houses were small and of poor quality and many of them were demolished in the 1930s.

A drawing by Dennis Flanders of the street gives a flavour of what it looked like when the land was first developed upon the open fields outside of the boundaries of 17th century London.

In their place came new commercial buildings for firms trading in textiles, shoes and photography.

Permission is now sought for extensions at third and fourth floor level; addition of roof terraces at levels one, three and five; replacement entrances to Gresse Street and Rathbone Place; alterations to the Evelyn Yard elevation; and for new mechanical plant and solar panels on the roof.

The alterations will add around 100 square metres of gross internal floorspace.

At 12-13 Rathbone Place the building is within the Hanway Street conservation area. It is also immediately north of the Grade 2 listed 11 Rathbone Place, which was originally constructed around 1718-1720 — making it one of the oldest buildings in Fitzrovia. It was re-fronted in the early to mid-1800s and still has an original and distinctive curving glass shopfront from that era.

The site is also within the safeguarding area for Crossrail 2.

A public consultation on the planning application is open until 13 June 2025.

Planning application: 25/02580/FULL, development site at 12-13 Rathbone Place, 1-6 Gresse Street, annd 7-15 Gresse Street, London W1T 1LL.

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