The Challenge

Leighton House Museum is one of Kensington’s most significant cultural landmarks. The former home of Victorian artist Frederic Leighton, first built in 1864 and open as a museum since 1900. Appointed to deliver the basement and temporary works package as part of a major restoration, we were working within a live heritage environment under strict conservation requirements, on a confined London site.

Our Approach

Our scope included specialist excavation, structural alterations, underpinning, exposed concrete construction, and waterproofing, all carried out to protect the museum’s historic fabric throughout. We designed and implemented complex temporary works solutions to safeguard the Grade II* listed structure while creating a new basement to house galleries, plant rooms, and visitor facilities. The architect specified exposed concrete soffits as a design feature of the new gallery space, with ribbed cast in-situ slabs providing a column-free span and integrated strip lighting, requiring impeccable formwork and finish quality.

The Outcome

A new basement was successfully delivered beneath one of London’s most important cultural buildings, enabling the wider transformation of the museum without damage to the historic structure. The exposed concrete gallery ceiling has become a design feature of the space.