About the Project

16 Chart Street, London N1

Like a contortionist in an impossibly constrained space, Tom Biggins twisted his way through a maze of limitations on this central London site, shoehorned into a narrow Victorian side street, and surrounded by residents. 

With the build footprint taking up the entire site, Tom gained permission to site the crane in the side street. He then went through seven major revisions of the build to deal with a series of site delays beyond his control, resequencing and rephasing to regain programme.  

When delay to the new lift shaft prevented work continuing on the side extension, he resequenced the works to install the building’s extra storey first, immediately following up with internal fit-out. Instead of keeping the crane longer to wait for the arrival of the delayed new metal staircases, he installed additional lifting beams and electric hoists to bring them in.  

When an archaeological investigation threatened to delay the programme and escalate preliminary costs unacceptably, he designed a bespoke scaffolding system. Cantilevering through the building, it incorporated a safety fan to the first lift, creating a safe zone below for the archaeologists while the building works continued above.  

The applause for Tom’s performance on this project comes in the significant form of the client awarding a further scheme to Conamar. It is the contractor’s second largest ever.