Largest residential development in City of London is being built to Secured by Design standards
The largest residential development in London’s Square Mile on the site of St Bart’s Hospital, the oldest hospital in the country, has been designed to incorporate proven police crime prevention techniques into the built environment, such as the layout and landscaping, and into the physical security of buildings.
This security guidance has come from Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative.
The residential development is spread over a total of 19 buildings at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, known colloquially as St Bart’s, which was founded as the Priory of St Bartholomew in 1123 for the poor and sick of Smithfield.
These buildings are being transformed into 236 apartments known as Barts Square. The first 144 buyers are due to become residents in September 2017 with the remaining 92 apartments due to be completed by Spring 2019.
The SBD features included in the built environment include lots of natural surveillance, through the use of landscaping and lighting, and measures to provide defensible space, such as fencing, gating and balconies protected by glazed or metal rail balustrades.
The buildings have video entry phone to all apartments, intruder alarms to lower ground, ground and first floor apartments, integrated access control systems to all building entrances and the services of a concierge 24/7. There is key fob entry to even the garden areas and CCTV covering the main path, known as Middlesex Passage, which runs through the centre of the development.
St Bart’s sits within the City of London Conservation Area and transforming the character and original features of the hospital buildings into modern apartments presented one of the greatest challenges for the Barts Square development design team, and Carillion, the developers responsible for first residential phase. Original bricks have been recycled, ornate metalwork refreshed and the timber windows replaced with the latest sash and casement products.
City of London planning developments receive security guidance from PC Ford Keeble, a designing out crime specialist with the City of London Police, who works closely with the City of London Corporation’s planning department and with Counter Terrorism Security Advisor (CTSA) colleagues.
PC Keeble, an Architectural Liaison and Business Engagement Officer, is one of around 200 Police officers and staff around the country who have been trained by SBD to be Designing Out Crime Officers, Architectural Liaison Officers or equivalent. They liaise with architects, developers and local authority planners to build in security from drawing board to final construction stages on a wide range of development types including housing, commercial, retail, mixed use, transport, education, health, leisure and many others.
The City of London is recognised as one of the world’s leading international financial, business and maritime centres. Although only home to 9,000 residents, it employs 370,000 people. With iconic buildings, such as St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Monument, and the Lloyd’s Building, it attracts around 10million visitors every year.
Secured by Design
Our aim is to achieve sustainable reductions in crime through design and other approaches to enable people to live in a safer society.
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