Planning Secured For New London Art Gallery Hub In South Kensington

Art Gallery Hub at Cromwell Place,

Council approval has been secured to provide a new home for up to 30 independent art galleries in the heart of South Kensington. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has rubber stamped the plans and the construction work is due to break ground over the next few months.

Cromwell Place is an exciting scheme that will contribute significantly to South Kensington

Buckley Gray Yeoman intend to convert a terrace of 5 townhouses in South Kensington into a new home for up to 30 art galleries on behalf of South Kensington Estates. With the planned closure of Christie’s South  Kensington branch, this new project is expected to give the area a cultural boost.

The listed terrace at 1-5 Cromwell Place, which includes the home and studio of the celebrated British painter, Sir John Lavery, will see the creation an innovative new gallery cluster providing offices, exhibition spaces, art storage and viewing rooms. The character and history of the building will be celebrated, with the existing fabric lightly altered to provide a flexible operating environment for galleries and curators.

Cromwell Place Courtyard Elevation
Cromwell Place Courtyard Elevation

The exterior of Cromwell Place will also be sensitively renovated. To the rear, existing unsympathetic extensions will be removed and a new high-quality gallery ‘pavilion’, courtyard and garden space added. This additional gallery space will provide a unique opportunity to support larger scale exhibitions.

Paul White, Director at Buckley Gray Yeoman said: “Cromwell Place is an exciting scheme that will contribute significantly to South Kensington’s international reputation as one of London’s most successful cultural quarters. The variety of spaces will provide flexibility which is key in maintaining a range of individual galleries.”

John Martin, Director of Cromwell Place “The high ceilings and generous proportions of the original buildings are ideally suited for gallery use. BuckleyGrayYeoman’s scheme brilliantly reimagines these historic spaces to cater for the needs of today’s galleries. For a building with such a rich cultural legacy, it is wonderful to bring exhibitions and art back to Cromwell Place.”

 

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