St Alphage Gardens

The rejuvenation and opening up of St Alphage Gardens, a public space running alongside the London Wall. The gardens are registered as a schedule ancient monument and, as part of works, the Roman and Medieval Wall were carefully restored to remove it from Historic England’s Heritage at risk register.

Client

City of London
Architect

Spacehub
Photography

Agnese Sanvito
Completion

2020

The brief was to sensitively bring the gardens in line with the London Wall Place works whilst maintaining its special historic character and identity as a City of London open space.

A site-wide SuDS strategy effectively manages surface water runoff through the integration of green infrastructure. The adjacent road required a new retaining wall to support the thrust loads when planters and other landscaping structures were removed. Beneath the site, there were a number of historic brick vaults that further complicated the structural solution. A careful propping scheme, together with a suitable construction sequence, was required to ensure the highway was not damaged during the removal of the arches and the construction of the retaining wall.

The new development reinterprets the site’s extraordinary history whilst restructuring its basic layout in order to promote a more accessible space. The new scheme makes the ground level access more pedestrian-friendly, and the adjacent walkway creates a welcoming threshold to the gardens and the London Wall Place development beyond.