In 1903 the Old Street Courthouse was built by John Butler in the Edwardian Baroque style, it was a contained two courthouses and offices. A neighbouring wing housed cells, lodging for a married officer and on floors above was accommodation for forty single officers, a mess hall and rooms for laundry and boot cleaning. From 1903 the buildings were in constant use until 1996 and the police station was active until 2008.
Now, this impressive Grade II Listed Magistrates Court and Police Station on Old Street, has been altered and given a fresh lease of life after years of neglect and now stands as a sumptuous 5* boutique hotel.
Today the building has been restored to its former magnificence, as well as adding a new bedroom block which sits behind the front elevation, the basement was renovated to provide space for a gym, swimming pool, bowling alley and a screening room.
To convert this Grade II Listed building from a courthouse to a hotel, serious thought had to be given to create ways to improve the thermal retention as well as mitigating the ingress of noise from the busy streets outside, to create a warm and peaceful place for guests.
As the building is Listed, the original primary windows could not be removed; Selectaglaze was asked by the principle contractor McAleer and Rushe to design and provide a solution for the vast range of different style windows. In total a 106 units were installed including curved, raked, casement doors and a beautiful double floor height feature window which was 5.287m high and 2.045m in width. The circular windows on the top floor required particular care and a bespoke fixing method for installation had to be created to meet the client’s requirements. All units were finished in white and matched to the existing frames to make them as unobtrusive as possible.
Secondary glazing is an independent window installed on the room side of a building, which decreases noise ingress creating a quieter environment and a reduction of 45dB is possible. As well as effectively reducing external noise, secondary glazing can also virtually eliminates draughts and assists in retaining the heat of a building, reducing heat loss by up to 50%.
As it is a fully reversible adaptation, it is often the only solution to enhance poor performing primary windows in Listed properties and is accepted by most heritage bodies. The attention to detail paid to all aspects of the design and build of this conversion means it is currently on target to achieve a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating.
Selectaglaze is a specialist in the design, manufacture and installation of secondary glazing, with 50 years’ experience and has held the Royal Warrant since 2004. It has a wealth of experience working on all building types from new build hotels to Listed Town Halls.
Selectaglaze has recently launched “Spotlight”, a blog is on secondary glazing in practice, with topical articles on the construction industry, together with specific installation stories of particular interest.
For more information about Selectaglaze visit their website.
