Egham Gateway West

Brick Manufacturer: Ibstock Brick Limited

Architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Brickwork Contractor: Swift Brickwork Contractors Ltd.

Egham Gateway is a town-centre regeneration development in the Runnymede borough of Surrey. Four mixed-use buildings combine retail, leisure, residential and student accommodation. A new town square and wider pedestrianised public realm brings the buildings together and stitches the development into the local context.

Liberty Hall and Gem House create a gateway from Egham Station to the rejuvenated town centre and have been designed in tandem with Corn Merchant House to create a unified commercial high street. These mixed-use buildings are lined with retail units at ground level as well as access to the Everyman Cinema. Liberty Hall responds to the curve of the site created by Church Road by-pass and has been designed to ensure active frontages on all elevations. These three buildings further contain 101 high quality, new homes at the upper levels and each features a shared resident’s terrace. A fourth building, Parish Hall, completes the development. It provides 100 individual student rooms each with study area, kitchenette, and en-suite bathroom in addition to the shared facilities and generous, multi-level, break-out spaces.

A key principle of the design was to ensure that the new family of buildings reflects and enhances the unique character of the local vernacular which features a diversity of brick colours, patterns, and bonds.

To develop the material palette for the buildings a comprehensive study of the local context was carried out at the planning application stage. This included an in-depth analysis of several key local buildings as well as a broader brick study which mapped the tonality of each building within a square kilometre of the site.