Star performers: Covent Garden's transformation to include warehouse-style homes around new courtyard
A rare event — new homes are launching this week in the heart of Covent Garden. Twenty-nine luxurious flats, The Floral Court Collection, have been created out of the former Westminster Fire Office, with new homes alongside.
The scheme is part of a major transformation of the famous tourist and cultural district by developer Capital & Counties Properties, aka Capco, owner of this prestigious West End estate.
Priced from £1.3 million, the studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and a penthouse are being built around a new courtyard, just north of the 17th-century Piazza and St Paul’s Church.
New images of the warehouse-style homes are due to be showcased at a launch party at SushiSamba restaurant overlooking the Piazza on Thursday 1 November.
The developers demolished an Eighties electricity substation that blocked the heritage frontage of the fire office to reveal the Grade II-listed façade.
Inside, original features including Corinthian columns, friezes and cornices have been retained .
The heraldic crest of the former fire station has been uncovered and restored and sits above the main entrance. The plush communal hallway with blue wall panels was the boardroom of the brigade building.
New Covent Garden shops and restaurants include the Michelin-star Petersham Nurseries.
Since the overhaul of the estate started in 2006, Capco has swapped many of the chain stores and restaurants to independent, designer or Made in Britain brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, Mulberry and Kent & Curwen, a mens’ clothes store in partnership with David Beckham.
While The Floral Court Collection offers the first new-build homes in the core of Covent Garden, Capco has been converting period buildings such as the Southampton and the Beecham for close to a decade, explains Savills’ Nina Coulter.
“Ten years ago Covent Garden was still seen as a bit grubby and a tourist destination, rather than for Londoners. The restaurants did not compete with those in Chelsea, Notting Hill or Fitzrovia.
"Following the overhaul it has become very special, a favourite with British buyers,” she adds.
