Office fit-out in Nine Elms & Battersea SW8 · SW11
New-build commercial in a district still being finished, where the building's own rules are stricter than anything a council would impose.
What you are fitting out in Nine Elms & Battersea
New commercial floors within mixed-use towers and the converted power station, alongside light-industrial and studio space in the surrounding arches and yards. A wide gap between the two: one is a managed new building, the other is a shell with a roller shutter.
Professional services, diplomatic and institutional occupiers in the new stock; makers, studios and light industrial in the older fabric. Two very different Cat B briefs — one corporate and specification-led, one raw and services-led.
The constraint that sets the programme
The new buildings run tight regimes: booked service lifts, security clearance for operatives, waste segregation to the building's own targets, and out-of-hours restrictions because there are residents in the same structure. The arches and yards have the opposite profile — easy vehicle access, no lift, no restrictions, and no infrastructure either.
Who decides, and what needs consent
LB Wandsworth is the authority. Internal fit-out in the new stock is rarely a planning matter; the binding constraints are the landlord's fit-out guide, the licence to alter and the residential neighbours above, which set working hours more tightly than any consent would.
A fit-out normally answers to three separate things: your landlord’s licence to alter, building regulations where services or fire strategy change, and planning only where the outside of the building or its use changes. They run on different clocks and the licence is the one most often discovered late.
What we are usually asked for in Nine Elms & Battersea
- Cat B fit-out within a managed mixed-use building
- Studio and light-industrial conversion to workspace
- Bespoke joinery and reception from our own workshop
- Seamless resin floors where a raised floor is not permitted
- Acoustic separation where residential sits above the demise
Partitions, joinery and glazing come from our own companies rather than a chain of subcontractors, which is why the timing and the warranty stay in one place. The low-waste method — refinishing over what is already there — is what makes most of this workable in an occupied building.
Why are working hours tighter in a Nine Elms tower than on a normal site?
Because people live in the same building. In mixed-use stock the residential demise above sets the noise regime, and it is usually enforced by the building manager rather than the council — which means it is a condition of your access rather than something to be argued about later. It is the strongest single argument for a fit-out method that removes demolition, because the loud phase is the one you cannot schedule around neighbours.
A floor area cannot price a fit-out.
We walk the floor, look at what is already there and what can be kept, and tell you what the access regime does to the programme. Free, and it is the only honest way to put a number on Nine Elms & Battersea space.
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