This project transformed a ten storey Grade II listed office and banking building on London’s Aldwych, designed by John James Burnet, into a teaching building for the London School of Economics.
Clement House was built in 1909-10 as the London headquarters of the General Accident, Fire & Life Assurance Company, and sits at the point where the crescent of the Aldwych straightens out towards Fleet Street to the east.
It was converted in the 1960s for speculative office use, and by the time it was purchased by the LSE in 1993 had become rather dowdy with a fire certificate limiting the number of people who could occupy the building to 300.
As a result of this project it now accommodates over 1100 students and staff in eighteen lecture and seminar rooms, with three floors of academic offices.
By radically restructuring the eight office floors above the old banking hall at the rear of the plan, column free space was created for large flat-floored lecture and seminar rooms. These rooms are cooled in summer - as a result the building became one the main summertime exam venues for the LSE. New plant and ducting was concealed within the fabric of the existing 1910 structure.
The double height banking hall (which had been split with a mezzanine to create more office space) was opened up, the east end shortened to accommodate a new fire escape stair, and the ceilings restored to provide a multi media lecture theatre for 200 students, and a flexible venue for special occasions.
