266-270 Regent Street
Styles Façade Solutions® (formerly Thomann-Hanry®), following a successful 2019 clean of nearby Alitalia House, was entrusted by Savills with heritage scaffold-free facade cleaning at Spirella House, 266–270 Regent Street, working to a strict requirement that the busy shop and surrounding commercial area remain undisturbed.
This meant the entire project had to be scaffold-free and carried out at night under permit, beginning with a detailed façade survey using mobile elevating work platforms to assess the masonry and plan restoration works, all without erecting any scaffolding.
The 500m² Portland stone frontage was then cleaned from a bespoke platform using the Façade Gommage process, lifting away ingrained grime to reveal the stone’s original white-grey hues in just four overnight shifts, entirely scaffold-free.
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266-270 Regent Street
Now one of the capital's busiest pedestrian crossings, the junction first opened as "Regent Circus North" in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development, which was overseen by John Nash. Almost 100 years later, in the early 1900s, the decision was taken to reconstruct the buildings around the junction ahead of the expiry of their leases in 1917.
The new buildings were designed by Sir Henry Tanner, whose symmetrical design of four quadrants was inspired by 18th-century French architecture, especially that of Ange-Jacques Gabriel. The ornate Beaux Arts details of the grand, colonnaded frontages that frame Oxford Circus so iconically are redolent of Parisian metropolitan architecture, so it is no surprise that the first building to be completed, in 1913, was called "Paris House".
This building, on the southeast corner of Oxford Circus, became known by the name of the UK subsidiary of the Spirella Corset Company, which occupied it for much of the 20th century. Initially riding on a wave of demand for individually designed corsetry, the rise and fall of Spirella reflected changing tastes and fashions in underwear through the post-war years, from a peak in the 1950s to the company's ultimate demise in the 1970s. By 1975, the Oxford Circus outlet was no longer in business.
However, following a refurbishment in early 2009, new tenant Tezenis moved in, picking up the baton and continuing this landmark's historical association with fashion and lingerie. In November 1973 the building gained Grade II listed status.
Styles Façade Solutions® works carefully around existing street furniture and overhead fixtures using Façade Gommage, a scaffold-free cleaning process that restores fine architectural detailing on landmark buildings like 266-270 Regent Street without disrupting London's busy retail heart.
Scaffold-Free Heritage Façade Cleaning... How It Works
Returning to the site after a successful clean in early 2019 of 253-259 Regent Street (also known as Alitalia House), which sits opposite on the southwest corner of Oxford Circus, Styles Façade Solutions® was entrusted by property agents Savills with repeating the process at 266-270 Regent Street (also known as Spirella House).
One of the key requirements was that the project could not interfere with the day-to-day running of either the shop or the wider commercial community of Regent Street. This meant the project would need to be scaffold-free and could only take place at night, under a night-time works permit.
Prior to cleaning works starting, the survey team from Styles Façade Solutions® carried out a detailed façade survey to assess the condition of the masonry present and plan for post clean restoration and repairs. Once again, through the use of mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs), the survey was conducted at night and with no need to erect scaffolding.
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The clean of the 500m² Portland stone frontage was carried out from our bespoke cleaning platform, with years of accumulated dirt and grime gently erased from the façade of the building, revealing the attractive original white-grey hues of the underlying masonry.
Gentle but swift, this extraordinary transformation was achieved in just four overnight work shifts using the heritage-grade Façade Gommage cleaning process. The process projects fine powders under compressed air across the surfaces of the building, delicately rubbing and lifting away ingrained dirt. This kind of heritage scaffold-free facade cleaning demonstrates how listed buildings can be restored without the need to envelop them in unsightly, expensive, and time-consuming scaffolding.
“Oxford Circus is a busy location. Given challenging trading conditions, it was more important than ever that cleaning and restoration works on the building should not in any way inconvenience or deter shoppers. By cleaning overnight, the impact on our tenants’ trading figures was negligible, enabling their flagship store to trade normally. The effect of the clean has been revelatory, presenting the building and, by extension, the client’s brand in the very best light.”
Regional Facilities Manager, Savills
See the links below for more examples of the results Styles Façade Solutions® (formerly Thomann-Hanry®) can deliver for your business.
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