Assael Architecture Ltd have submitted an application for planning permission and listed building consent to restore and refurbish one of the most impressive modern landmarks in West London. Wallis House, a former factory also known as the Smith Kline Beecham House, has been left empty for years. Several schemes to refurbish or demolish the building, including a design by Richard Rogers Partnership, fell through in the last few years. The Twentieth Century Society welcomes with enthusiasm its proposed restoration and conversion into flats. Assael have drawn up a sensitive and innovative scheme that respects the outstanding qualities of this massive yet carefully proportioned building.

Wallis House was built between 1936 and 1942, mainly to designs of Wallis, Gilbert and Partners. It is grade II listed and forms part of a whole series of important factory buildings by the same architects on Great West Road, some of whom have been demolished in the past decades, including the Firestone Factory of 1928. The building is also witness to the history of transport of London. Erected on a new axis that was built in the 1920s, Wallis House is part of an era of industrial prosperity, which gave birth to great architecture.

For further information please contact Cordula Zeidler on 020 7250 3857, or 079 30 2751 24, Cordula.Zeidler(at)c20society.org.uk
John Assael, tel: 020 7736 7744
Hounslow planning, tel: 020 8583 2000 (via switchboard)