Squire and Partners – which ranked in ninth place in this year’s AJ100 – purchased a dilapidated Edwardian department store in Brixton and has imaginatively reworked it as both their offices and a space to experiment, collaborate and showcase the work of some of their suppliers and the craftspeople they work with – and as a venue for events.
Stripping back the building – which was built as an extension to the Bon Marché store, the first purpose-built department store in the country – revealed its decayed grandeur and the craft and detail of the original workmanship. Squires has revealed and highlighted many of these elements as well as exposing more recent evidence of occupation, like graffiti from when the building was squatted, while at the same time repurposing the building as their workplace by adding a series of contemporary interventions.
