• Client: The Belvedere Trust
• Architect: Gallus Studio
• Photography: Agnese Sanvito
• Completion: 2020
• Size: 1,741m²
• Expertise: Structures, Civils

The Box Office, also know as 4-6 New Inn Broadway, is a mixed-use development in South Shoreditch, that comprises offices on the first to fourth floors and a mixed-use public space at ground floor. The design also incorporated external landscaping, pedestrianising the street to the front and creating a harmonious flow between the public realm and the exhibition and performance space.

Webb Yates Engineers collaborated with Gallus Studio on the design, delivering the structural and civil engineering aspects. Our structural design for the scheme comprises a reinforced concrete frame on piled foundations. The first floor is a reinforced concrete structure consisting of diagonal beams in a waffle pattern with a reinforced concrete slab to allow the exhibition space to be free of columns.

An internal sustainable drainage solution was carefully coordinated around the existing architecture, reducing the surface runoff from the building by 50%. Externally, as part of Hackney Council’s commitment to making roads safer and encouraging more walking and cycling, a narrow underused section of public realm is transformed into a bright shared space with new paving, cycle parking, street furniture and trees and planting, which can be enjoyed by pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike. Works involved designing levels across the site, hardstanding sub-bases and details, and a sustainable drainage system that utilised tree pits, as well as coordinating with the numerous existing services that ran across the site.

The remains of the foundations of what was the first polygonal Elizabethan playhouse, ‘The Theatre’, lie below the site. In celebration of this, the ground floor is designed to host exhibitions, classes or workshops with a Shakespearean theme. The space features a viewing panel for the ruins below.

To give the client an income stream, the offices were designed to be flexible for future tenants, and the exhibition space was designed to be open and inclusive, flexible enough to accommodate a variety of events while displaying the archaeological remains present on the site.