Architect who pulled block of penthouse flats at Arundel Square out of the air

Published: 20th May, 2011
by ANDREW JOHNSON

A LOT of dreams are built on air. Bill Thomas’s is no different. Except his has come true.

The architect has made a lot of money over the past two or three decades. It’s easy to see how. His plush offices by the canal at Angel were bought in 1992 for £420,000. Ninety staff enjoy views across a garden and the canal. The former Victorian warehouse is awash with light, thanks to its cavernous space and dizzyingly high ceiling. The building, renovated since it was acquired as a derelict shell, is worth several million.

But Mr Thomas has, unlike many developers, a philosophy that goes beyond merely making buckets of cash. He believes that when you take something out of London, you have to put something back.

“There are people who would say I’m driven by the money and certainly we have to make money,” the architect, who is now 72, says. “I arrived in London with zilch [he made his first serious money by converting a house in Hampstead into five flats]. There have been periods over the last 20 years when it’s been possible to make enormous amounts of money in London. And if it’s possible to make lots of money then it’s possible to make a fair amount and do something that benefits the environment.”

His latest achievement is one of his best, he believes. Last month, after nearly 20 years of navigating a labyrinth of ever-changing regulations, he attended the opening of Arundel Square in Barnsbury, which has spent the 150 years or so of its existence with just three sides. His block of flats on the site will bring in millions. But what pleases Mr Thomas most, he says, is the completion and extension of the  public square, now almost double its size.

To achieve this, his firm, Pollard, Thomas, Edwards, had to negotiate with an ever-shifting body of people and organisations. Not least was the need to put a metal deck over the railway line that runs from Highbury to Caledonian Road. 

Before he could contemplate that, however, there was the small matter of buying the various plots of land – and the air above the track. 

“As soon as I saw the land I could see it had potential,” he said. “There was an old builder’s yard, a block of housing association flats and the railway line.”

First, he bought the builder’s yard, then the two railway embankments. He had to negotiate with the housing association to demolish its block and supply it instead with flats in the new development.

To put the decking into place he had to buy the air rights above the railway. Railtrack and later Network Rail were happy at the time to offload as much land as possible – “they just wanted to own a tube of air for the train to run through,” he says.

All this took around four years. Then there was the problem of finding a firm that could build the deck and put it in place.

Only one firm – WS Atkins – could do it. But in order to place the steel deck the railway had to be closed, and nobody was willing to insure the cost of anything going wrong. 

“You can’t insure against the cost of stopping the railway for longer than you’ve contracted to do,” he says. “To put the steel in we had to close the railway, which means the rail companies aren’t going to pay the rent to Network Rail. We got piggy-back possession, which means we waited until the railway was going to be closed anyway. Because of the insurance problem I had to sell the entire project to United House, a very large consultancy company who could deal with the insurance.”

The deck going into place was a very satisfying moment, Mr Thomas adds. But before then he had had to negotiate with the hundreds of residents who lived in a terrace opposite the site. 

“Reaching that deal took a very long time,” he says. “It’s like going into a cocktail party and making a rude noise. It upsets people, and that’s what it’s like when you knock on someone’s door and tell them you’re going to build a block of flats at the back of their house.”

The main problem was that they were going to lose quite a nice view from the backs of their houses and find it replaced with another block of 146 flats.

But, Mr Thomas had to convince them of the benefits. 

“We can improve their quality of life,” he says. “They were gaining quiet, with the trains going under a tunnel, better security as the backs of their houses wouldn’t be open, and the same sunlight. But they still didn’t think it was fair. So we provided a fund to restore the facades. The fronts of their houses are being transformed.”

Over the years residents would leave and new ones arrive, meaning negotiations had to begin again. Now, however, only a few of the flats in the award-winning development are for sale.  

He has no idea how much it all cost, he says. To buy the land cost, in total, £820,000 and a single penthouse in the new block will go for £1.4m. 

“My satisfaction has been going on for a long time. There was a great moment of satisfaction in 2003 when we finally got planning permission. Even then we didn’t know if we could do it. Building the flats took three years. The most exciting moment was putting the deck in place. It was a fantastic moment.”