Squire and Partners in Lambeth

[editor]

Let me pose the $64 dollar question:
If you had the choice of Champers at Squires, or Champers at the Shrub and Shutter, which would you choose?

I'm afraid neither choice fills me with even a shred of enthusiasm. I'd rather have a pint in the pub.

 

[CH1]

I'm afraid neither choice fills me with even a shred of enthusiasm. I'd rather have a pint in the pub.

I'd be keen to get the view at Squires. I suspect this could become a fashionable venue for those sort of events where tables feed back at the end of the session. Only trouble is the tables will probably be full of councillors plotting which zone to regenerate next.

 

[Crispy]

I wonder what they're like to work for? A 10 minute commute would be nice.

 

[Winot]

I wonder what they're like to work for? A 10 minute commute would be nice.

Could you and teuchter get jobs there please and invite us all to drinks in the dome.

 

[editor]

I wonder what they're like to work for? A 10 minute commute would be nice.

Oh, their staff are very well taken care of and their perks would be the absolute envy of most Brixton workers. They get loads of freebie office jaunts abroad - Berlin, Rome, Copenhagen etc - and soapbox racing, Lovebox, Henley Regatta jollies galore! They must have shitloads of cash to throw around, but given their hyper exclusive, super-rich client list, that's not surprising

Squire and Partners reward hard work with a lively social life, providing year-round events including team days out, office football and softball teams, involvement in design festivals and an annual office trip, which has been part of the practice for over 35 years.

Social | Squire and Partners

 

[bimble]

I trust the weather vane is still to come as per the drawings?
Can't make out if its a ship or a cockerell or what but the needle looks silly without it.

 

[Crispy]

hyper exclusive, super-rich client list,

Can't be any worse than my current employer.

 

[alex_]

Oh, their staff are very well taken care of and their perks would be the absolute envy of most Brixton workers. They get loads of freebie office jaunts abroad - Berlin, Rome, Copenhagen etc - and soapbox racing, Lovebox, Henley Regatta jollies galore! They must have shitloads of cash to throw around, but given their hyper exclusive, super-rich client list, that's not surprising

Loads of this stuff will be tax deductible, and make up for poor salaries which are not.

Alex

 

[alex_]

I'd be keen to get the view at Squires. I suspect this could become a fashionable venue for those sort of events where tables feed back at the end of the session. Only trouble is the tables will probably be full of councillors plotting which zone to regenerate next.

Only as long as the free Krug doesn't run out.

 

[editor]

Can't be any worse than my current employer.

Really? This lot have been behind some of the most exclusive and richest private developments in the UK.

Squire and Partners has designed many of London’s “prime presidential” developments including Chelsea Barracks, One Tower Bridge, Clarges Mayfair, Ebury Square, Netherhall Gardens and The Knightsbridge Apartments, with hotel projects including the five star Bulgari Hotel & Residences in London, the boutique Rockwell Hotel, and the Hilton Liverpool.

More recently, they teamed up with a private UAE-based fund on a £150 million luxury flats redevelopment in Chelsea, and also created the ‘most expensive luxury apartment to ever come on sale in London’s Marylebone.

 

[editor]

Loads of this stuff will be tax deductible, and make up for poor salaries which are not.

Alex

Define "poor salaries" and place them in context of the area please. Thanks.

 

[alex_]

Define "poor salaries" and place them in context of the area please. Thanks.

I'm saying that staff jollies can be defined as a business expense, which makes up for below market rate salaries.

Compared to the area it'll all be in the top 5-10%.

Alex

 

[alex_]

Really? This lot have been behind some of the most exclusive and richest private developments in the UK.

They are successful, if they weren't they wouldn't be able to afford an expensive office.

 

[editor]

I'm saying that staff jollies can be defined as a business expense, which makes up for below market rate salaries.

Compared to the area it'll all be in the top 5-10%.

Alex

Indeed. This lot they're shipping in from north London will be living the high life at work compared to most Brixton workers. Most can only dream of swanning around a "social rooftop space expressed as a series of pavilions" and having nibbles in their own private cafe.

And then there's all those wonderful free trips abroad and office jaunts around the UK. Yep, this lot really are the lucky ones. Shame it's unlikely that many Brixtonites will be invited to join the party.

 

[alex_]

Indeed. This lot they're shipping in from north London will be living the high life at work compared to most Brixton workers. Most can only dream of swanning around a "social rooftop space expressed as a series of pavilions" and having nibbles in their own private cafe.

And then there's all those wonderful free trips abroad and office jaunts around the UK. Yep, this lot really are the lucky ones. Shame it's unlikely that many Brixtonites will be invited to join the party.

I'd imagine their staff live all over London.

They've restored a brixton landmark, will be paying lambeth a boatload of business rates, their staff will be spending money in brixton businesses - this is all good for brixton - what is your beef ?

Alex

 

[Crispy]

Really?

Yes really. They're a direct competitor and we have some of the exact same clients.

Times have changed. When I started here, we were doing local authority leisure centres, halls of residence and out-of-town office parks. Now it's all 5 star hotels, Bond Street boutiques and Mayfair apartments. They were the only jobs going during the recession and now it's all we do. It's fascinating work from an architectural POV, but also a sickening view into how the other 0.5% live.

 

[editor]

They've restored a brixton landmark, will be paying lambeth a boatload of business rates, their staff will be spending money in brixton businesses - this is all good for brixton - what is your beef ?

I doubt if their staff will be making much use of the traditional Brixton businesses - the market, Afro Caribbean stores etc - and the presence of such relatively well off people moving in will have an impact on rent and rates. It's basic gentrification - great for some (in particular people who already own homes in the area) and devastating for others (people on low paid jobs in rented accommodation).

Do you own your home around here? I sometimes find that people who do fail to have any understanding of why those at the bottom of the pile don't share their enthusiasm for high end businesses and exclusive restaurants opening up in their neighbourhood.

 

[editor]

Yes really. They're a direct competitor and we have some of the exact same clients.

Times have changed. When I started here, we were doing local authority leisure centres, halls of residence and out-of-town office parks. Now it's all 5 star hotels, Bond Street boutiques and Mayfair apartments. It was the only work going during the recession and now it's all we do. It's fascinating work from an architectural POV, but also a sickening view into how the other 0.5% live.

I'm sorry to hear that. I find all this luxury stuff so depressing and I'm sure that's not what you got in the game for.

 

[Crispy]

The hotel suite I'm working on right now has a living room bigger than my entire house.
(I just checked, it's nearly twice as big)

 

[editor]

The hotel suite I'm working on right now has a living room bigger than my entire house.

That's fucking obscene. This madness has to end soon.

 

[Crispy]

That's fucking obscene. This madness has to end soon.

Time was you could get a decent mob together, storm their gates and loot their houses. Now they live nowhere and everywhere, while their wealth sits on a computer in the Carribean. They're untouchable. The whole system has to collapse before they even feel a tickle of inconvenience.

 

[editor]

Time was you could get a decent mob together, storm their gates and loot their houses. Now they live nowhere and everywhere, while their wealth sits on a computer in the Carribean. They're untouchable. The whole system has to collapse before they even feel a tickle of inconvenience.

Yet so many at the top are getting fatter and fatter through this corrupt system. Opposite me - in one of the most deprived wards in London - flats are going up starting at over half a million quid. There's no social housing included and an unspecified amount of (guffaw) 'affordable' homes.

The flats are being flogged off with an advertising campaign drawn on Brixton's reputation as some sort of trendy gritty urban hangout while those struggling to survive nearby can only look on. This development won't improve their lives one jot. It's just another wedge that's going to eventually force them out of the area and their community. Makes me want to cry.

 

[Crispy]

That sort of thing is about the "elbow" of the wealth distribution curve, as it starts to pitch up towards the top 10%. Out of reach of all but the top ranks of Squires' employees, if they pay anything like the rest of the industry. (Or those lower down the ranks with help from mum & dad)


If you drew that graph with a continuous line instead of discrete bars, the right hand side would spike right off the top of the screen and start interfering with planes on approach to Heathrow. Those are the people who can afford 160m² living rooms in their hotel suites, separate chaffeured Bentleys for themselves and their shopping, and entire floors of shops dedicated to one-on-one handbag sales.

 

[lefteri]

Yes really. They're a direct competitor and we have some of the exact same clients.

Times have changed. When I started here, we were doing local authority leisure centres, halls of residence and out-of-town office parks. Now it's all 5 star hotels, Bond Street boutiques and Mayfair apartments. They were the only jobs going during the recession and now it's all we do. It's fascinating work from an architectural POV, but also a sickening view into how the other 0.5% live.

This is why I'm glad I'm out of the profession, despite my income plummeting- it was clear after the crash that the only clients left were in volume house building, spec offices and super-high end residential refurbishment. A few practices might get the glittering prizes of well-funded public buildings but even their bread and butter would be in the aforementioned sectors. At least previously there were some functioning public sector building programmes like new schools, now there's virtually nothing.

 

[lefteri]

The hotel suite I'm working on right now has a living room bigger than my entire house.
(I just checked, it's nearly twice as big)

I remember looking at the floor plans for 1 Hyde park which had been stripped down considerably and were posted on the development's website. I was very confused for a while until I realised that what I had assumed to be individual flats were actually rooms, it was that scale of magnitude bigger than what I had got used to in designing layouts for 'normal' apartment buildings

 

[teuchter]

I see that someone in the comments under the Buzz article has managed to convince themselves that this practice is stuffed with people earning £66k.

 

[editor]

They were nominated in the Carbuncle Cup for this monstrosity

This luxury residential tower may be on the thin side, but its poor design and inappropriate location wreaks urban damage that extends far and wide

Sadly, London’s River Thames continues to yield a fertile carbuncle harvest with its first nominee this year. One Tower Bridge is a luxury riverside residential development that has been designed by Squire and Partners for Berkeley Homes. Both have Carbuncle form. Berkeley Homes produced 2014 Carbuncle runner-up Vauxhall Tower (another luxury Thames-side development) and Squire and Partners co-designed last year’s nominee the M by Montcalm Hotel. The practice is also likely to receive similar carbuncular recognition when its Shell Centre redevelopment (yet another luxury Thames-side development) completes in 2019.

However, this robust pedigree is immaterial to this year’s newest candidate which has been nominated by reader Robert Dwek. Moreover, it is only one particular part of the overall development that is being nominated, a preposterous 20-storey tower block opposite the Tower of London christened, with stunning cheek, the Tower.

This is yet another London architectural tragedy that has bad planning as its roots. And the extent of planning failure is demonstrated by the impact this tower has on important historic views of the Tower of London opposite. When viewed from the north, the Berkeley tower gate-crashes the turreted and pinnacled roofscape of the famed medieval fortress and marks an unwarranted intrusion on to a site of both national importance and Unesco World Heritage significance. Judge for yourself whether a forgettable stack of luxury triplex flats was really worth violating a world-famous townscape vista that has been so integral to the character and fabric of London for almost a thousand years.

Carbuncle Cup: The Tower, Southwark by Squire & Partners

 

[editor]

Oh and here's another. And fuck is it ugly:

It’s one of the most aggressive buildings in London. It visually assaults anyone approaching it from Old Street roundabout, and distorts the street view into a time-warp-like perspective with its acutely sharp and unforgiving angle. One wonders if the intention is solely to provoke - not just the passers-by but also the hotel guests with its petty windows

Carbuncle Cup: M by Montcalm hotel

 

[alex_]

That's fucking obscene. This madness has to end soon.

I think we have bigger problems in society than un necessarily large hotel rooms

Alex

 

[editor]

I think we have bigger problems in society than un necessarily large hotel rooms

Alex

You don't think the growth of the property-grabbing, rent-escalating super-rich is emblematic of any major underlying problems in general society then?