1a St James’s Street, London SW1Y

Scope of Works

Rankin D&D were appointed by Stockdale LLP on behalf of Berry Bros. & Rudd, the oldest wine merchants in London, to act as principal contractor for the internal strip out of a 3-storey retail unit on the corner of Pall Mall & St James’s Street used as a high end Cuban cigar retailer, to allow the conversion of the unit into a spirits store to form part of an enlarged retail area encompassing the existing wine retailer within the adjacent premises. The works included the complete removal of all existing floor finishes, a number of layers of suspended ceilings, toilet cores & kitchenette, plasterboard & glass partition walls previously forming the humidor/smoking area of the previous tenants business and all redundant M&E throughout including a variety of historical elements housed within the mezzanine level. Additionally, we were tasked to undertake investigative opening up works to various structural elements to allow the completion of the design of the new fit out and the creation of 3no openings within various areas including 2no party wall areas together with all associated temporary works to allow the same. The project had a pressurised timeframe to both commence & complete the works due to the new store needing to be open as soon as possible to maximise revenue from the new spirits store.

Challenges

The site area was constrained and situated within a busy Westminster location, with no external space to allow the positioning of welfare facilities or stockpiling of waste materials. As such, all welfare facilities were established internally, and all waste was removed first thing each morning via wait & load cage lorries to minimise any inconvenience caused to the general public. Noise levels were monitored throughout the works to ensure adjacent residents were not impacted by the works and various opening-up works were undertaken within the cellars to Berry Bros. & Rudd during their normal trading hours with agreement to facilitate the new structural openings between the two areas.

Achievements

Having been allowed a 4-week programme, Rankin D&D completed all contract works with over a week to spare and also undertook various additional works to move the project forward that would normally have been included within the main contractor’s package, thereby generating a commercial saving for our client. On an environmental basis, we recycled a large volume of redundant plant & equipment from the mezzanine level and separated all other waste streams despite the limited site area to ensure the highest possible percentage of waste avoided landfill. We also arranged the fully intrusive R&D asbestos survey, albeit no asbestos was identified within the works area. Rankin liaised with various third parties involved in the subsequent fit out works and provided principal contractor supervision & management on site beyond our original contract period until handover to the appointed main contractor. Solutions to the structural openings were designed by one of our specialist approved supply chain and will be completed on site by our appointed subcontractor, Robore, during the main contract works period.

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