Contractors vie for £35m British Land scheme and two Foster-designed tower blocks worth a total of £90m


Slicker city: British Land's plan for Ludgate West
Slicker city: British Land's plan for Ludgate West


Bidders are lining up for three major office schemes in the capital to be developed by More London and British Land.

The three jobs, worth a combined total of £125m, are a clear sign that the office market is returning after a prolonged lull.

Three construction managers – Bovis Lend Lease, Mace and Interior/Exterior – are vying to build two additions to the More London development next to City Hall in Southwark.

The two office blocks have been designed by Foster and Partners and will house law firms Norton Rose and Lawrence Graham.

The 10-storey block that will house Norton Rose will take up 28,000 m2 of the site’s 45,500 m2 third plot. It is likely to cost £62m to build, and the firm is due to take up the space in 2007.

The Lawrence Graham development is set to take up 14,000 m2 of the site’s 30,000 m2 fourth plot. The construction cost is likely to be £28m.

Meanwhile, Bovis and Interior/Exterior are lining up against Sir Robert McAlpine to build a delayed £35m two-stage office scheme called Ludgate West in Farringdon for British Land.

The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill scheme, which will replace the 1970s Caroone House on Farringdon Street with a 10-storey 17,000 m2 building, was put on hold last year. At that stage two different contractors – Laing O’Rourke and Carillion – were competing with Bovis for the job.

Demolition has already started on the Caroone House block in preparation for the scheme.

A source at one of the bidders said that British Land was becoming more positive about the prospects for London’s commercial market. In June, the firm appointed Mace construction manager on a £100m 24-storey Foster and Partners-designed block in Lime Street. The source said: “The firm is still cautious but is slowly becoming more confident.”

  • Two contractors are understood to be left in the running for Eric Parry’s £34m redevelopment of St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, central London.

Costain and Mowlem have beaten off bids from Walter Lilly, a construction arm of Montpellier; Wallace, Kier’s historic buildings subsidiary; and Interior/Exterior. Work on the church’s restoration and extension is due to start early next year.