London Victoria's Kings Gate completes

London developer Land Securities is celebrating the completion of a new residential development in London’s Victoria, thoughtfully designed by architect Patrick Lynch

(Image credit: Interior Culture)

By Ellie Stathaki

last updated 7 October 2022

London's Victoria is abuzz with development, and what (astonishingly) used to be a somewhat overlooked part of the city centre, will soon inspire renewed excitement as a coveted spot to live, work and play.

Developer Land Securities has a central role in the area's transformation. Injecting a much-needed residential element into Victoria Street – the neighbourhood's main circulation and commercial vein – was top of their list. The first residential project to reach completion is Kings Gate, a luxurious new building comprising 100 units and retail on the ground level.

The architect, Patrick Lynch, has been working on the project since 2010 and is the brains behind its attractive, cleverly articulated facade. 'Placing a residential building, Kings Gate, onto Victoria Street was tricky in technical terms and in terms of architectural decorum,' he says. 'The challenge was to find an architectural character and scale of facade that enabled a multitude of private lives – secreted behind stone piers and balconies – to encounter the very public territory of office blocks and its immediate neighbour, Westminster City Hall.'

Lynch's aim was to create 'useful, virtuous, beautiful architecture, on the basis that these are the reasons why buildings become sustainable and why they endure as part of a city'. Producing long lasting architecture is strongly connected to the quality of its public spaces and details, such as door handles, are as important as the overall urban mass of a project. At the same time, the apartment interiors are by Millier Design.

The building forms a pair with the next-door Zig Zag Building, also by Lynch, which caters for commercial uses. 'Together they create a series of shared public spaces,' explains the architect. He is now working on detail design drawings on two more projects for Land Securities at the western end of Victoria Street, just a few hundred yards from Kings Gate. Nova Place (including a new public library for Westminster City Council) and Nova East will complete the constellation of mixed-use high-end constructions that will help define the new Victoria.

A book by Patrick Lynch, coming out this month, entitled Mimesis (Artifice Books, 2016) investigates the issues touches by these projects and the ancient question of poetics in architecture and its role in our visual imagination.

Lynch spent a lot of time investigating the stone-clad facade’s distinctive articulation

His aim was to create a design that befits its private residential use, while setting up a dialogue with nearby commercial and public buildings

The building’s distinct character is palpable inside too, with high ceilings and long vistas through its linear facade elements

The Kings Gate apartments — Victoria may be abuzz with development, but careful design and sound proofing means that life can be very peaceful in the Kings Gate apartments

The Kings Gate building forms a pair with the next-door Zig Zag Building, which was also designed by Lynch and will host commercial uses

Lynch’s attention to detail is reflected on the building’s public space details, such as door handles

INFORMATION

For more information on the development visit the website (opens in new tab)

TOPICS

London UK

Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).