This building has a lot of character and also dates back to the 19th Century. These kind of homes were the residence of the merchants which had their homes conveniently located near their businesses in Main Street.
When it was built the building comprised of a retail outlet, 2 floors living quarters and a laundry room with a small terrace. A nice size light-well is also found at the rear of the building that use to
collect water for an underground cistern found under the floor of the retail outlet.
In this particular project the Architects and Structural Engineers decided that as a complete survey had to be carried out on the existing joist which were supporting most of the weight of the floors and it came back showing that they were in a pretty good condition. A decision was taken not to touch them and reinforce them wherever necessary.
Demolition phase included the removal of the laundry room, a vertical structure from top to bottom at the rear which housed the toilets at each floor of the building as well as a type of dome ceiling on the top floor. Other interior partition brick walls were removed.
A new layout was designed which consisted of retail outlet, a studio flat on the ground with access to the light-well. The 1st and 2nd floor having 2-bedroom apartments with small kitchens, bathrooms and living area. The 3rd floor has a separate bedroom with its bathroom and a front and rear terrace with an adjacent open plan living room/kitchen. The attraction of this apartment is its side stairs that lead you straight to a beautiful mezzanine that has on the front building a huge size window with great views and at the rear a small balcony.
In its building LWSF were used throughout to remove unnecessary added weight to its foundation.
The apartments have been finished to a high standard. High quality laminated floors have been fitted throughout except in the bathrooms where the appropriate tiles have been laid.
The original entrance hall antiques tiles have been very carefully protected during the works and in places where they had already been previously damaged these have been restored to its former glory. The original building entrance door has been restored and moved back by 1.5 meters away from its original location to create a type of entrance lobby and in order to house the Gibraltar Electrical Authority electrical cabinet.
For this project our Clients were proud recipients of an award from the Gibraltar Heritage Society for
maintaining and enhancing some of the original features of the building.