LONDON WALL PLACE:
BUILDING ON HISTORY
MAKE ARCHITECTS
Make’s new commercial scheme reveals and celebrates original
Roman Wall and saxon remains for the first time in decades
Make Architects has completed work on its London Wall Place
project, a new commercial scheme offering the largest set of
public gardens developed in the City of London since the post-war
brutalist Barbican estate on behalf of Brookfield Properties and
Oxford Properties.
The scheme comprises two office buildings surrounded by
extensive public realm including a series of public gardens and
reimagined elevated pedestrian walkways to link the neighbouring
Barbican with the City of London.
The project’s concept lies in referencing the deep history of the site,
from the Romans through to post-war modernism. The scheme’s
geometry is aligned with the historical urban grain created by the
section of the original Roman city wall on site and its materials
reference those used to build the wall. Both the wall and the
medieval St Alphage Church tower on site – hidden from public
view since the 1960s – have been beautifully restored and made
a central part of the public realm, while the elevated walkways of
the 1960s have been reimagined and reinstated. The architecture is
designed to be a backdrop to these landmarks, not competing but
simply becoming the setting.