GMSquare LTD, London (2026)

03/06/2026

🏗️ OLYMPIA LONDON: A £1.3B Redevelopment Saga… with a Side of Drama?
👇👇👇👇
https://medium.com/.info/olympia-london-a-redevelopment-saga-with-a-side-of-drama-0e312d22a8e6

🤔Can you force a Victorian iron-and-glass exhibition space to become a luxury 21st-century lifestyle hub? That is the £1.3 billion question being answered right now in West London!
🇬🇧If you walk past Kensington Olympia today, you’ll see a massive transformation underway. Originally opened in 1886 as the National Agricultural Hall, Olympia was built to manage massive crowds. It was a classic case of Victorian “logistics before aesthetics”—built for scale rather than beauty, functioning almost as a spiritual clone of the Crystal Palace.
Now, it’s being completely reborn as a year-round, 365-day urban ecosystem.
🧱 What’s on the Blueprint?🎭
A 1,500+ seat theatre (London's largest new theatre since 1976!)
🎸 A 4,000-capacity music venue (operated by AEG Presents)
🏨 Two Hotels (Hyatt Regency + citizenM)💻 550k sq ft of creative and digital office space
🍽️ 30+ Restaurants, bars, public routes, and open-air rooftops
🌳 A new Senior School and a 2.5-acre public park
🏗️ Moving From Iron Spans to the Experience Economy. As someone who loves tracking the teams behind major landmarks, Olympia’s timeline is a fascinating mix of creators. Huge credit must go to the massive modern team executing this engineering feat, including developers Yoo Capital and Deutsche Finance International, lead designers Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC, main contractor Laing O'Rourke, and engineering powerhouses like Robert Bird Group, CampbellReith, Desco, Crown House Technologies, BJF Group, Eckersley O'Callaghan, Olsson Fire, OFR Consultants, Vanguardia, and Buro Happold.
⚠️ The Passer-by Perspective & Local Drama
Of course, no major London project escapes a bit of local friction! 😅 Neighbours have battled over late-night alcohol licensing, traffic management on congested public roads is a logistical jigsaw puzzle, and there’s a running joke that the site is turning into a theme park for corporate events and influencers. As the local saying goes: “A building designed for cows and agriculture now hosts AI conferences and fashion weeks.”
As a Grade II and Grade II* listed asset, does the exterior live up to its heritage? Even near completion, the facade feels like a collision of a million different forms and materials. When the lateral sun hits the south facade, the volumes appear jarringly irregular.
Would it have been architecturally superior to demolish everything except the historic arches to allow a uniform, contemporary identity to express itself?
While the architectural debate will likely continue for years, immense applause must go to the daring developers, visionary designers, and the incredible site labour force and traders bringing this to life. What do you think of the new design? Do you prefer uniform modern architecture, or do you like preserving historic facades even if it creates a massive contrast? Let me know in the comments! 👇Cheers to the next chapter of London's skyline! 🥂

24/05/2026

Fulham Fire Station - Half Machine - Half Dwelling

24/05/2026

🔥FULHAM FIRE STATION — Half Engine House, Half Family House🔥

Most people walk past Fulham Fire Station without noticing it.

Which is slightly unfair, because this building has been quietly doing the same job for around 130 years.

The current station opened in 1896, but its story starts much earlier.

After the Great Fire of London in 1666, fire protection gradually became not only a public necessity but also an insurance problem — insurers discovered that preventing fires was generally cheaper than paying for them afterwards. London eventually moved from private brigades to a public fire service, and by the late Victorian period, fire stations began appearing across the city.

Fulham received this one.

And being Victorian, they naturally decided that a place for storing hoses and horses should resemble a small civic palace.

👉Look carefully, and you start noticing things:
• the red brick and stone details
• the tall chimneys
• the corner turrets
• the octagonal tower
• the huge arches for the engines

Originally, this was not only a workplace.

Inside lived:
– 12 married firemen
– 6 single firemen
– 1 officer
– 1 coachman
– 4 horses
– and the fire engines.

Imagine having dinner with your family upstairs, hearing the alarm, and running downstairs to leave within minutes.

The station, adapted from horses to motor engines in 1913, became Grade II listed in 1990, and was heavily refurbished in 1994 (there’s a plaque on the façade).

My favourite detail is the tower.

People assume it existed to watch for fires, but it was to be seen, and drying canvas hoses
By the 1890s, London already had telegraph systems — the tower may have been almost as much about being seen as seeing.

Classic Victorian logic:
If public infrastructure exists, it ought to look important.

Around it, everything changed — shops, football crowds, pubs, traffic, property prices.

But Fulham Fire Station still does the job it was built for. Let's take care of wrongful refurbishments, and cherish the most precious, the Firefighters and the whole Brigade.

And in London, that may be rarer than we think.

Next time you pass it, look up.

https://medium.com/.info/victorian-fulham-fire-station-where-firefighters-did-not-commute-they-lived-there-c24d164bf88c

22/05/2026

✅Monumental Mischief at Kew! Moore's Sculptures delight us ✅
Henry Moore has officially invaded the glorious landscapes of Kew Gardens — and honestly, it feels like the gardens were landscaped around his sculptures. Everything flows so naturally you’d think Moore and Kew had been plotting this collaboration for decades.
🌳But behind this balance?🌳
A LOT of planning, curatorial chess, engineering wizardry, and a heroic team of people who deserve applause:
👉Kew Gardens and its stunning landscape stage
👉Henry Moore Foundation — the sculptural masterminds
👉Shirley Sherwood Gallery — intimate works, drawings, maquettes
👉Engineers (my favourite group, obviously)
👉Riggers, conservators, arborists, soil scientists, art‑handlers, volunteers… the quiet army behind the bronze
Behind the scenes?
☑️Staff jokingly called it “the placement wars” — horticulture protecting roots older than most countries, while the Moore Foundation pushed for dramatic sightlines and “Moore in the wild” energy.
☑️And then there was the Temperate House panic — moving monumental bronzes into a Victorian glasshouse. One staff member described it as “the great heart‑rate spike of 2026.”
☑️Sotheby’s support raised a few eyebrows (“When’s the next auction?”)
☑️ Wakehurst is hosting More Moore — sibling rivalry activated
☑️ The children’s drawing pencils ran out in week one
This exhibition is more than art in a garden — it’s a meeting of engineering, landscape, sculpture, and public joy. Moore would have loved it. Thanks for the Exhibition
☑️ Naughty Wishes: maybe we will see some Chillida or Rafael Barrios pieces running around Kew, upps just a thought

06/05/2026

Excellent design and craftsmanship, or is it craftwomanship?

06/05/2026

How about this prize winner? proud of her Works, a splendid designer, a Resilient architect, an entrepreneur, and now a craftswoman...Well Done!!

More in https://competition.adesignaward.com/ada-winner-design.php?ID=176307

01/05/2026

🥂 Michelin House: The Tyre Cathedral of Fulham Road (But in Chelsea)
For more 👉 https://medium.com/.../michelin-house-the-tyre-cathedral...
Have you ever found yourself wandering on Fulham Road and stopped to watch a pair of funny-looking cupolas that look like heaped tyres one over the other? Congrats, you met Bibendum, the Michelin mascot, showing you the old Tyre House.
Built in 1911 by the Michelin brothers and François Espinasse. This place was originally a tyre depot and HQ. But because Michelin never did anything halfway, they decorated it with terracotta tiles, racing‑car panels, stained‑glass windows, and the two cupolas you just looked at, shaped like stacks of tyres. Chelsea has seen things — but even Chelsea wasn’t ready for this. It is an ART DECO landmark, just splendid.
The building stands on Fulham Road, although in Chelsea (London mix). It became Grade II listed in 1969, which saved it from a 1960s plan to demolish almost everything and build a ten‑storey office block. Only the façade would’ve survived. Imagine the remarks section on that planning decision.
In the 1980s, Paul Hamlyn and Sir Terence Conran restored the building and filled it with stories: missing stained glass, rumours of collectors, and the delicious irony of a tyre company HQ hosting a two‑star Michelin restaurant.
😎Fun Bits You’ll Love😎
* Bibendum (the Michelin Man) used to be drawn drinking nails and glass, just like we all do.
* Some stained‑glass windows disappeared during WWII and sparked decades of gossip
* The council “graciously allowed” the modern glass extension — not part of the listing, "don't get ideas anymore"
* The mosaic floor shows Bibendum raising a goblet of road hazards
* The 2024–25 restaurant closure has everyone guessing what’s next
* "NUnc es Bibendum" translates to "Now is time to drink" 😂🤣🍺🍺
Michelin House is quirky, colourful, and impossible not to smile at — a proper London oddity in the best way.

30/04/2026

🏡Parsons Green: A Brief History of Gentrification, Gossip & the Art of Being Slightly Too Posh

Parsons Green is one of those rare London neighbourhoods that has managed to gentrify, de-gentrify, re-gentrify, and then super-gentrify — all before most of London had even learned the word.
• Gentrification in London usually follows this pattern: poor → edgy → cool → expensive
• Parsons Green is more like: rich → mixed/working → middle-class → very rich again

Posh today, but it wasn’t, and it was, yes, very entangled, maybe aspirational, scandalous on occasion, as someone maybe would think “a Posh area pretending not to be noticed”. It’s the urban equivalent of someone who says they’re “not fancy at all” while wearing countryside chic and drinking coffee priced like a small luxury item.

👉 https://medium.com/.info/parsons-green-a-brief-history-of-gentrification-gossip-the-art-of-being-slightly-too-posh-a91efaa26c68

WHERE IT STARTED:💒

Its name derives from a 14th-century parsonage-house for the parish of Fulham; folks say it was used as his personal bowling green. By the 1700s, Bowack noted that the Green “Was inhabited mostly by gentry and persons of quality”, or “if you can’t afford a carriage, do keep walking”.

1️⃣ACT I: Gentrification (before the word existed)

In the 18th century, wealthy people began building retreat houses to escape London’s traffic, pollution, and, yes, some occasional plague. Merchants and bankers needed somewhere to show their wealth. Courtiers wanted to be close to the action but not too close, and some of the Royal Circle who enjoyed a bit of a countryside feeling.
“Gentrification before gentrification knew it was gentrification.”

2️⃣ACT II: De-Gentrification (Sort of)(or middle-class arrival)

Then came the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, Tube Stations, Power Stations, classic London “Let’s play it by ear”, Investors saw profit, the middle-class could commute, Terraced Houses replaced Villas, working-class families rushed in, baby buggies included, and Parsons Green had a normal air sensation, briefly.

3️⃣ACT III: The return of The Posh (Who asked for it?)

• 1960s and 1970s: Professionals rediscovered the Green, slow start in climbing the social ladder
• 1980s & 90s: Fulham goes from "solid Labour " to “solidly brunch”. Start disguising the posh sentiment.
• 2000 & going: "Super-Gentrification", Parsons Green goes internationally funded. Local retail goes “boutique”, Artisan coffee sells like a Portobello Antique. Private clubs, even Dogs get branded suits.

4️⃣ACT IV: Gentrifying itself

With Conservation area status and proximity to the King’s Road, Parsons Green is a high-value pocket within Fulham. Planning disputes seem to be a local sport, Basement wars. School redevelopment drama. A 37 storey gasholder project is stressing everyone out. You know — community bonding.

🧐Things “Sloany Baloneys” love to remember😎

• Cricket matches on the Green on 1731 and 1733, both between sides from Fulham and Chelsea, no hooliganism.
• Fulham F.C. played here in 1889.
• The White Horse pub. “The Sloaney Pony” Pimm’s for Posh.
• The Green: itself
• Aragon House
• The Parsons Green Working Men's Social Club, standing strong

🙈Things locals would rather forget🙈

• The 2017 Tube bombing
• Courtly scandals — Maria Fitzherbert, yes, lived here, enough scandal.
• 18th century “louche associations”
• Modern conservation area tensions
• The "Nappy Valley" pram
• "Lion House" basement Wars
• luxury flats replacing anything that looks remotely “authentic.”
• Loss of the "Old" Fulham: independent shops replaced by “artisan” bakeries with over 100 same “artisan” bakeries in England, with their own “sourdough recipe”.

👍👍PARSONS GREEN: Forever Posh, Forever pretending not to be, that’s why we love it

20/04/2026

⚡ Chelsea Waterfront: The Power Station That Refused To Die
(And Took 21 Years to Prove It)

👉 https://medium.com/.info/lots-road-power-station-chelsea-to-chelsea-waterfront-part-ii-009a20192ad4

If you’ve ever walked past Lots Road Power Station and thought, “Wasn’t that place abandoned forever?”, here’s the plot twist: it’s now Chelsea Waterfront — a shiny riverside neighbourhood built on top of one of London’s longest-running planning sagas. More London, impossible.
🏗️ The Early Dream
Back in the early 2000s, Hutchison Whampoa and Sir Terry Ferrell had a big idea: turn the old power station into luxury riverside living. Sir Terry Farrell drew up a huge masterplan… and then 2008 happened. The financial crash hit, London politics kicked off, and everything froze.
Classic London.
🏢 The Comeback
Enter CK Asset Holdings (Li Ka Shing’s team), who basically said: “Right, let’s actually finish this thing.”
And they brought in a seriously talented crew:
• Formation Architects
• Fiona Barratt Campbell
• BPTW
• Buro Happold
• J Reddington
• Randle Siddeley
• Ardmore Group
A proper international team effort — and they delivered.
🧭 What They Built
• The Powerhouse: 260 apartments inside the restored power station
• Two towers: 37 storeys and 25 storeys
• New bridges over Chelsea Creek
• New public spaces and water gardens
It’s a full transformation — industrial bones with a luxury finish.
🧩 The Drama (because of course)
• Local councils fought the height and density
• Planning started in 1996, first residents arrived in 2017
• The Thames Tideway Tunnel caused delays
• People online argued about the architecture (obviously)
• Roman Abramovich reportedly bought a penthouse
• Poet Laureate Simon Armitage wrote a poem for the paving
It’s London — if there isn’t chaos, is it even a real project?
🏙️ My Take
Love it or hate it, Chelsea Waterfront is impressive. The Powerhouse looks fantastic, the towers are elegant, and the landscaping softens the whole site beautifully.
I may not be a fan of high rises on the Thames banks, but credit where it’s due: the architects, engineers, designers, and contractors did an incredible job.
The councils… well… they were there. But the professionals? They deserve a round of applause.

Some photos are from CK Asset Holdings

Architecture

20/04/2026

Chelsea Waterfront (Part I): The Drama Behind the Chimneys

----> https://medium.com/.info/lots-road-power-station-to-chelsea-waterfront-part-i-c6b36b72d0e9

Before Chelsea Waterfront became a financial and property development venture and riverside living, the area was home to three power stations.
London’s electrification was chaotic, and the Tube didn’t help. Different companies, different tunnel sizes, different voltages, and absolutely no one agreeing on anything. And into this mess came three giants:
🔥 Battersea Power Station — the diva with four chimneys. People hated it at first. The Tate Gallery feared its smoke would ruin priceless artworks. MPs called it “monstrous.” Architects and engineers fought over the shape of the chimneys. And behind the beauty? Six workers died and hundreds were injured.
🔥 Fulham Power Station — the forgotten middle child. Bigger than Lots Road, but constantly overshadowed. Local laundries complained their sheets were turning grey. Officials insisted everything was fine. (It wasn’t.)
🔥 Lots Road Power Station — the American troublemaker. Built by Charles Yerkes, a Chicago financier with a criminal record. The British press despised him. Chelsea residents protested the station, saying it would “ruin the river view.” It powered the Tube privately for decades and was the only station with windows — because Yerkes wanted it to look good.
When it was finally decommissioned, engineers found so much asbestos and corrosion that they described the process as “surgery on a patient who might collapse at any moment.”
All this happened before Chelsea Waterfront became the place we know today. Part II will be the transformation story — from industrial chaos to riverside luxury.

GMSquare LTD

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