The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall Lighting Design Statement Report

Document Number: OWO-DPA-LD-RPT-0005 Date: 15th April 2021 - Rev 01 dpa lighting consultants CONTENTS The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

Executive Summary 2

Baseline Study - Introduction 3

Site History 5

Site Context (Daytime) - Long Distance Views 7

Site Context (Night-Time) - The North End Of Whitehall 14

Site Context (Night-time) - The South End Of Whitehall 28

Site Context (Night-time) - Trafalgar Square and Institutional Buildings 34

Facade Lighting Trial - Introduction and summary 43

Facade Lighting Trials #1 & #2 - Plan Location 44 Location A - Typical Corner Tower 45 Location B - Entrance Lighting 46

Lighting Trial #1 Photographs - Improvements 47

Lighting Trial #1 Photographs - Improvements (Detailed) 48

Lighting Trial #2 Photographs 49

Lighting Proposals 50

Example of Cabling & Fixing Methodology 51 Fixing Methodology Examples 52 Cabling Methodology Examples 53 Cabling Methodology Examples 54

Lighting Visualisations Reflecting Lighting Trial & Final Design 55 - Elevation Plan Layout 55 - 1 - Whitehall Court Elevation Proposed Lighting Design 56 - 2 - Whitehall Place Elevation Proposed Lighting Design 57

Conclusion 58

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

This Lighting Design Statement Report is intended to support the application for full planning permission and listed building consent for the Detailed Lighting Design Scheme as prepared by dpa lighting consultants at the site of 57 Whitehall of the Grade II* listed Old War Office building.

Following dpa’s Baseline Study Report (Part 1), dpa’s Façade Lighting Trial Report (Part 2), dpa’s Concept Design Report (Part 3) and a lighting trial presented to WCC & HE, it was agreed that the levels shown were acceptable in principle, subject to details of fixtures and fittings. The final Detailed Lighting Design was progressed dpaby to document a considered lighting scheme proposed for implementation. During this process, steps have been taken to minimise the extent of fixings into stonework etc. as well as the visual appearance of the physical lighting equipment and lit effect both during the day and at night.

Within this report, the Baseline Study, Site History and Site Context provide background information presented by dpa to demonstrate an understanding of the building and how a sensitive, well considered and implemented architectural lighting scheme would be an asset to the building itself with its new use and within this part of London in general. The lighting trial section illustrates and records physical lighting tests to selected architectural elements of dpa’s proposed lighting design in order to inform the final Detailed Lighting Design.

The final Detailed Lighting Design also took into account feedback from WCC & HE from a pre application meeting on 27 March 2019 where the three reports noted above were presented. Two lighting trials were also carried out to support this design on the evenings of 17th February 2020 and 4th March 2020. The first trial was improved upon by the second with the outcome of the trials summarising that the levels of lighting and the design intent was considered to be acceptable and appropriate for the building. However, it was agreed that a few sensitive historical architectural elements will be reviewed in more detail via condition with WCC & HE with regards to the most appropriate levels of lighting which would be the subject of further on site trials with WCC & HE to agree the level of illumination. The two areas identified were the Whitehall Entrance and the Drury Statues around the building at 4th floor level. We have included details of the proposed fixing location within the scope of this application as agreed with WCC & HE.

The lighting design intent is also visualised within this report to illustrate how the sensitive quantity of light has been planned and proposed for the primary, secondary and tertiary façades, diminishing in light levels and quantity of light from the primary whilst also taking into consideration the appropriateness of how this building should be lit and the areas of Whitehall in which it sits beside. The lighting visualisation pages illustrate how dpa lighting consultants are proposing to light the Old War Office building by highlighting architectural features to the façades and entrances with the help of schematic lighting elevations as visual aids. As noted above, considerations for a reduced lighting scheme to the two main residential façades (Whitehall Court and Whitehall Place) are also shown whereby the facade lighting to the central areas have been reduced to a minimal as an appropriate response to the appropriateness of the lighting design.

Further Detailed Design information including Detailed Planning Lighting Drawings and associated Lighting Equipment Schedules accompany the wider planning application. A detailed set of drawings have been prepared for the Whitehall elevation only to show how each fixing type would be attached to the building. This approach has been agreed during the pre-application stage as the building’s architectural features repeat on each elevation.

Finally, an extremely important aspect and consideration of the lighting intervention onto the building is the fixings and wiring of the lighting equipment. Specialist Stone Masons and Contractors PAYE are engaged to advise and ensure the most appropriate fixings are used and are acceptable to WCC & HE.

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 2 BASELINE STUDY - INTRODUCTION The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

This section of the document has been prepared to understand Whitehall and its context at night, exploring how buildings are illuminated and how this has informed the proposed lighting scheme at the Old War Office. It looks at the buildings history, location, relevant reference projects in the vicinity and demonstrates how a sensitive, well considered and deliverable architectural lighting scheme would be an asset to the building itself, as a prominent new Hotel within Central London. The townscape at the North end of Whitehall is more commercial and includes historically significant buildings that are open to the public, which are all illuminated to some extent. This part of the townscape ends with the Banqueting House and Horse Guards, and the Old War Office which has not been illuminated in its previous use.

Image from Google Maps showing site location

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 3 INTRODUCTION The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

The lit townscape in the Whitehall Conservation Area and more specifically the streets The Corinthia Hotel, which turns the corner of Whitehall Place into Northumberland surrounding the Old War Office including Whitehall, Whitehall Place, Whitehall Court Avenue, is brightly lit on each elevation with targeted lighting expressing the and Horse Guards Avenue have a varied array of lit buildings depending on their use architectural forms of the ground floor rusticated pilasters, as well as the window and position in the local townscape. architraves and decorative pilasters on the upper floors. The main entrance to the hotel on Whitehall Court, close to the Old War Office, is also brightly lit. The Royal Whitehall, a processional street that runs north from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Horseguards Hotel is also lit on Whitehall Place, though it is centred on the ground floor Square, can be broadly divided into two character areas. The southern end of the entrance, and the hotel is more dimly lit than the Corinthia. To the east of Whitehall street, which is within the Whitehall Conservation Area, is predominately lined with Place, the illumination peters out beyond the Corinthia Hotel. governmental buildings that have minimal, functional lighting predominately centred around the buildings entrances, though the brightly lit tower of Big Ben illuminates The sensitive and targeted illumination of these elevations of the Old War Office the end of the street, and the Cenotaph in the centre of the road is also illuminated at would therefore also be appropriate in the context of the local townscape subject to night. detailed design, particularly the primarily hotel frontages on Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall Place, which owing to their new use with new entrances into the The northern end of Whitehall is located in the Trafalgar Square Conservation Area hotel require a degree of illuminated presence after dark. In addition, much like the and has a distinctly commercial character, with well-lit buildings including the ground Corinthia, the consented use of the building as a hotel, with a 5* operator on board, floors of the commercial units between Great Scotland Yard and Northumberland requires the building to be immediately recognisable in the local townscape and have Avenue, such as the Silver Cross Public House and Trafalgar Studios Theatre on the a certain identity, which could be achieved by sensitively illuminating the architectural west side of the street. Although lit to a lesser extent, the ground floor screen of features of the building. Admiralty House is also lit together with the cupola of Horse Guards Avenue, which sits directly opposite the Old War Office in the Whitehall Conservation Area. The character of this part of the lit townscape culminates in the frontage of the publicly accessible Banqueting House, positioned on the south-east side of Whitehall and on the south side of Horse Guards Avenue opposite the Old War Office. The frontage of Banqueting House is brightly lit at night, and acts as a terminus between the two character areas.

The Old War Office is positioned in this well-lit part of the townscape, in the more commercial character area on the northern stretch of Whitehall, and the sensitive illumination of the Whitehall frontage would therefore suit the illuminated character and context of this part of the conservation area after dark.

The streets to the west of Whitehall have a more varied lit character. Other than the Banqueting House, Horse Guards Avenue is only illuminated by the main entrances of the Ministry of Defence, and the residential building of One Whitehall Place on Whitehall Court is similarly functionally lit.

A change in character emerges at the northern corner of Whitehall Court and Whitehall Place, where there are two hotels that are more brightly lit due to their use and function.

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 4 SITE HISTORY The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

The area at the west end of today’s Whitehall was in older times the Royal Palace The photograph above is showing King Edward VII’s coronation procession in 1902 of Westminster, close by the Abbey. In 1698 in the reign of William III it was almost along Whitehall in front of the construction site of the War Office. entirely destroyed by fire and the former Palace site was used both for a number of fine 18th century town houses as well as less stately buildings housing both government officials and private citizens and businesses. These in their turn were demolished to make way for the Government offices which occupy the area today.

The original War Office on the south side of Pall Mall had, even in its earliest days, proved too small and inefficient.

Mr William Young FRIBA was the architect commissioned in 1898 by HM Office of Works to design the ‘new’ War Office. Sadly, he died two years later, but the design was completed by his son, Clyde Young, and Sir John Taylor, consultant surveyor to HM Office of Works.

William Young Clyde Young Sir John Taylor

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 5 SITE HISTORY The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

The West and North fronts from the second floor upwards received a row of Ionic columns. Along the roof were placed sculptured figures symbolising Peace and War, Truth and Justice, Fame and Victory and on top of each of the four corner towers a decorative dome was put in order to mask the irregularity of the building’s shape.

On 8 October 1940 four bombs did hit the War Office, fortunately causing only superficial damage but killing one person. Otherwise, despite a further seven hits, the building remained relatively unscathed, the damage mainly confined to its upper levels.

The War Office remained the centre of the Army’s administration until, with the formation of the unified Ministry of Defence on 1 April 1964, much of the former Army Department transferred across Horse Guards Avenue to the Ministry of Defence ‘Main’ Building.

The War Office building is of trapezium shape, which was dictated by the need to use all available space to maximise Reorganisation took place in the “Old” War Office Building the accommodation, on a site surrounded by existing buildings. (as it now became known) and it fulfilled an MOD role while it retained a considerable Army presence. The first brick was laid in September 1901 and when the building was completed in 1906 it had used some 26,000 tons of Portland stone and 3,000 tons of York stone, as well as 25 million bricks. Using what was then called (Text Source: Ministry of Defence: The Old War Office A History) ‘Renaissance’ style (now called ‘Edwardian Baroque’), Young designed the West Whitehall-facing front as the chief elevation.

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 6 SITE CONTEXT (DAYTIME) - LONG DISTANCE VIEWS The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

This section examines important views of the Old War Office building, focussing on long distance views from surrounding streets and public spaces.

2 Views 1 and 2, taken from Trafalgar Square, show the North-end of Whitehall with the 1 Old War Office building on the left-hand side and the tower of Big Ben as a focal point in the distance.

View 3 is taken from the Southend of Whitehall, approaching the building from 6 Westminster.

View 4 is looking at the Old War Office from Horse Guards Parade.

The Old War Office Corner Turrets are most prominent from these locations, especially viewed from long distance. On a closer approach, more of the architectural features of the building are revealed as the site photographs on the following pages will illustrate. The main pedestrian entrance to the Hotel is located along Whitehall, so this should 5 be considered as a priority when discussing a lighting scheme for the building at night. 4 View 5 shows the Old War Office elevation from the End of Horse Guards Avenue,. This is the second of the two main elevations and where the main carriage entrance for the Hotel will be located.

View 6 is taken from the crossing of Northumberland Avenue / Whitehall Place. This is also were the Corinthia Hotel, the closest nearby Hotel property is situated and it is important to illustrate how the Old War Office building relates and compares to this.

3

Image from Google Maps - Red arrows indicate main long distance views of the Old War Office

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 7 LONG DISTANCE VIEWS - APPROACHING FROM TRAFALGAR SQUARE The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

1

Image from Google Maps Image from Google - Red box indicates view of site from Trafalgar Square (roundabout), with Big Ben as a focal point in the distance

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 8 LONG DISTANCE VIEWS - APPROACHING FROM TRAFALGAR SQUARE The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

2

Image from Google Maps - Red box indicates view of site from Trafalgar Square

Image from Google Maps - Red arrow indicates view from Trafalgar Square Site picture taken in February 2018, approaching on Whitehall

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 9 LONG DISTANCE VIEWS - APPROACHING FROM WESTMINSTER The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

Image from Google Maps - Red box indicates view of site approaching from Westminster

3

Image from Google Maps - Red arrow indicates view from Westminster Site picture taken in February 2018, approaching on Whitehall, from Westminster direction

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 10 LONG DISTANCE VIEWS - APPROACHING FROM HORSE GUARDS PARADE The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

4 Image from Google Maps - Red box indicates view of site from Horse Guards Parade

Google Maps - Red arrow indicates view from Horse Guards Parade Site picture taken in February 2018, approaching from Horse Guards Parade Site picture taken in February 2018, approaching from Horse Guards Parade

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 11 LONG DISTANCE VIEWS - APPROACHING FROM VICTORIA EMBANKMENT The Old War Office - 57 Whitehall

5 Image from Google Maps - Red box indicates view of site from Horse Guards Parade

Google Maps - Red arrow indicates view from Victoria Embankment Site picture taken in February 2018, approaching from Horse Guards Parade

Lighting Design Statement Report - 15th April 2021 12