Capital House is a historical building occupying a site behind St Mary Woolnoth, the 18th century church by Hawksmoor. The project needed to be sensitive to its historical setting yet provide all modern amenities.
Work on the building needed to respond sensitively to its historical setting, whilst providing the modern amenities expected of a present day office building. The integration of the old and new is a theme that ran throughout the project.
This plot of land housed the first general post office and originally provided a public route connecting King Williams Street and Lombard Street. In the 1950s, this path was blocked and repositioned by the repositioned by the predecessor of Capital House. The current building re-instates the original route and for the first time in over a century opens to view the rear façades of St Mary Woolnoth.
Façades have been constructed using hand–set Portland stone, matching that of the church and many other buildings in the area. This façade is articulated and the mouldings generally hand prepared as they were when the church was first constructed, providing a consistency between the two sites.
The space created between the two buildings has been given over to a display of artefacts from the previous office, and includes a dinosaur foot print discovered near to the Portland quarry where the façade stone was extracted.
This area also provides seating and planting for the public enjoyment. The entrance to Capital House consists of a large, simple space, clad with high-quality natural stone.