Bishops Gate Fulham High Street

“Approached behind a pair of meticulously restored historic gatehouses, [Bishops Gate, Fulham High Street] forms a new focal point for the Fulham High Road, with striking architecture”

Bishops Gate – Savills

Bishops Gate or Fulham High Street includes 49 high end apartments and 10 townhouses with many featuring Sapphire balconies. The development is in a prime London location offering residents unmatched access to the sprawling capital.

The site retained 2 listed gatehouses which now create a grand entrance to the development behind retaining the cultural and historic legacy of the area.

Challenge

The type of build at Bishops Gate, Fulham High Street featured a precast hollow core slab substituting our cast-in anchors for our top-fixed solution. Fixing to such substrates always raises the question of how to ensure optimum rigidity in the final balconies without casting-in.

Due to the location of the project a full crane could not be used to install the balconies, so an alternative had to be found. The location, a busy high street, also meant that deliveries needed to be made in harmony with the local area to maintain public safety and satisfaction.

Solution

To overcome the precast hollow core slab Sapphire opted for a top-fixed anchor which takes a different approach in dealing with the moment forces transferred back to the slab therefore maximising rigidity to the final balconies.

To overcome the difficulties of the high street location deliveries were carefully coordinated with Bennett Construction’s logistics manager. The site team were keen to ensure no traffic built up along the high street and our team ensured balconies were quickly unloaded and installed with minimal disruption. Our offsite balconies helped the team reach their goals by drastically reducing the logistical difficulties of the area.

To work with the logistical constraints on site a mobile crane was used to quickly and efficiently install the balconies. All balconies were installed over just 2 days freeing up the crane for use with other trades and accelerating the whole project programme.

Installation Process

Step 1: Top-fixed anchors were attached to the slab offering superior rigidity to the balconies.

Step 2: Cassette® balconies were preassembled offsite, including the balustrades, decking & soffits.

Step 3: Cassette® balconies were transported with balconies secured to each pallet making transport both cost effective & safe. Balconies were pre-slung offsite ready for installation upon arrival.

Step 4: Once lifted into position, the Cassettes® simply Glide-On™ to the pre-erected support arms, before completing the simple mechanical fixings.