Benedetti Architects has completed the comprehensive refurbishment and reconfiguration of the bespoke tailor Connock & Lockie in Bloomsbury, providing an expanded shop, cutting and sewing rooms, as well as improved facilities for client consultations and fittings.

The building is located on Lamb’s Conduit Street, a pedestrianised Georgian street celebrated for its rich variety of specialist independent, owner-run shops. The project will allow Connock & Lockie to fulfil its ambitions under director Yusuke Nagashima, to make every part of their suits on site – from first measurement to final fit.

The architects’ approach to the project, which includes the remodeling of the business premises over two floors of shop and three residential floors above, is a sensitive response not only to the specific needs of this 114-year-old company, but also in providing it with a perfect fit to the Grade II-listed Lamb’s Conduit building which has been its base since 2004. The refurbishment is ‘another stage in the ongoing life’ of the building, which was originally built in 1765 as a three-bay wide, four-storey townhouse with basement, before being converted in the 1820s into a shop at ground floor level.

The project started with a forensic assessment of the existing fabric – much of it still original, but in a poor state. What followed was a process of filtering the key elements (a palimpsest of Georgian, Victorian and 20th century) – whether to keep, reinforce or replace – whilst maintaining the essential quality of the often idiosyncratic spaces.