The Whiteley

• Client: Laing O’Rourke
• Sector: Retail
• Services: Firestopping
• Region: Bayswater, London
• Size: 1 million+ sq. ft
• Project Value: £3 billion

Project Overview

The Whiteley will be the latest incarnation of one of the most famous destinations in the fashionable Bayswater district of central London.  

As Whiteleys, a department store and later a shopping centre that attracted visitors from nearby streets, all over the capital and beyond, it formed a focal point of the local area for many decades. Since 2018, however, the site has been undergoing a substantial redevelopment that is now due to open in late 2024.  

Many people will be fascinated to visit the new version of an imposing building that has several notable entries in the cultural history of the area.  

Whiteleys is mentioned in George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion, and there are strong rumours that Adolf Hitler would have made this London landmark his headquarters in the capital if the Nazis had successfully invaded England during the Second World War.  

This substantial redevelopment project, costing more than £3 billion and covering more than one million square feet of space, will include nearly 140 homes, 20 new retail outlets, cafes and restaurants, a central public courtyard, a cinema, a gym and a Six Senses hotel and spa. 

Sentinel was engaged by main contractor Laing O’Rourke to install passive fire protection solutions behind the retained heritage façade, such a familiar sight to Londoners for more than a century. 

This was a challenging project that required our ingenuity and expertise as one of the capital’s leading specialist decorating and fire protection sub-contractors.  

Project Brief

Redevelopment of the Whiteleys site is part of a wider regeneration of Queensway, the road it stands on, and Bayswater as a whole.  

The first Whiteleys department store opened on the site in 1911, and shopping here was seen as the height of luxury – it was one of the first department stores in London. There were many changes over the years, including its reimagining as a shopping centre in 1989.  

Now it is being reincarnated again, this time as The Whiteley, a mixed-use development that, it is hoped, will restore the site to its prominent place in the affections of the local community.  

The stunning Queensway façade is being restored to its former glory, with glazing infills on the upper floors to match the original. There will also be a remodelled cupola on the northern corner to add balance to the competition of this extensive façade.  

This is a Grade II listed building, originally designed in 1911 by John Belcher and John James Joass for William Whiteley, the visionary who gave the building its name.  

Given the history of the structure, its sheer size, and the need to retain the original appearance while adding innovative contemporary features, this is a complex and challenging project. Not least when it came to delivering passive fire protection to the areas immediately behind that famous façade. 

Challenges / Solution

Delivering firestopping solutions was particularly challenging because behind the retained heritage façade is a new internal structure for the building.  

This façade will expand along its length by up to 31mm in each direction from the centre of the front elevation. The new internal structure behind it, meanwhile, will settle by up to 29mm more than the existing heritage façade.  

Sentinel was charged with the task of providing a fire compartment connecting the heritage to the new structure that offered fire protection for up to 120 minutes. This compartment would have to accommodate both the horizontal movement and long-term vertical movement between the two structures.  

Our experienced and knowledgeable team is used to delivering built-in fire protection solutions from the industry’s leading practitioners.  

In this case, we constructed the fire compartment using a Firemac FM Blue solid partition system. Firemac FM Blue is a steel-faced composite board with an asbestos-free, fibre-reinforced cement core. It delivers exceptional fire resistance, as well as strength and durability.  

As well as the solid partition system, we installed a complex joint connection. This will allow the section connected to the old façade to move independently of the section connected to the new structure – while still offering 120 minutes of firestopping protection.  

The Result

At Sentinel, we are particularly proud of our work on the firestopping element of this extremely prestigious and high-profile project.  

The solution we designed was innovative, not least because the industry did not have any tested fire compartment system that could accommodate the extreme levels of movement that have been factored into the redevelopment of The Whiteley.  

This redesigned version of a Bayswater landmark is expected to open before the end of 2024. But work to revitalise this corner of London will continue in the years ahead. Further development of other buildings is planned to continue until 2026.  

At its heart, though, will be The Whiteley. Marcus Meijer, of real-estate investment firm Mark, purchased The Whiteley in 2013 and has planned this redevelopment for more than a decade. As he put it: “I’ve lived in the area for 20 years and was always struck by the sheer size of the building and all those floor-to-ceiling windows. I wanted to bring it back to glory.” 

He is on course to do so, with a project that has targeted a BREEAM rating of Excellent – reflecting exemplary standards of sustainable and inclusive urban design and architecture.