Pilbrow joins our 'Cultural Cities' forum
Inside the proposed new London Fire Brigade Museum, adjacent to the working Lambeth LFB station at 8 Albert Embankment (Pilbrow and Partners)
Founder of architects Pilbrow & Partners, Fred Pilbrow will join our 'Cultural Cities' debate on 27th January, alongside Gus Casely-Hayford, Director, V&A East, Duncan Wilson, CEO of Historic England, Jonathan Reekie, Director of Somerset House Trust and Lloyd Lee, Managing Partner of Yoo Capital. The debate will examine how cultural institutions can best serve their local communities as well as tourists post-pandemic, and what represents the best mix of uses to sustain vibrant city districts.
Pilbrow & Partners has been working for regeneration developer U+I Group on 8 Albert Embankment in Lambeth London. The £500 million Gross Development Value public-private-partnership scheme has been approved at planning committee by both Lambeth Council and the GLA subject to appropriate procedural and judicial process.
Overlooking the Thames and across to the Houses of Parliament in Lambeth, this important site houses both the Lambeth fire station and the former London Fire Brigade HQ. Alongside the operating station, the site will house a permanent London Fire Brigade Museum, formerly located in Southwark. The museum, according to U + I Group, is an important educational centre and will provide a world class collection, which tells the story of fire-fighting from the Great Fire of 1666 to the present day. Proposals for the site include 443 new homes (40% rated affordable), 1,264 new jobs across 100,000 square feet of work space and new public spaces.
Fred described to Future Cities Forum how the mixed-use Albert Embankment development will help extend an evolving cultural district in Lambeth and Vauxhall. This already includes the Garden History Museum (formerly the Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth), the Beaconsfield Gallery (a space for contemporary art based in the former Lambeth Ragged School) and the Newport Street Gallery - which presents works from the personal collection of Damien Hirst and which is housed in an old Victorian scene-painting warehouse.. He explained how creating a pop-up London Fire Brigade Museum (with borrowed end-of-life tenders from Hendon) helped with the public and community consultation process. He commented:
''Along with 40% affordable homes on the development, the regeneration of the old LFB head-quarters will include a roof-top restaurant with views up and down the Thames.'
Picture below: CGI of proposed rooftop restaurant at 8 Albert Embankment development (Pilbrow and Partners for U + I Group)
