Great Eastern Quays, London

Part of a masterplan to redevelop London’s Royal Docks, the largest enclosed docks in the world, the £81 million Great Eastern Quays scheme is delivering 350 high quality, sustainable one, two, three and four-bedroom mixed tenure homes for client Notting Hill Housing on the site of a former pharmaceutical warehouse and commercial building alongside a retained historic pumping station at the eastern end of the docks.

The largest ever single project for Main Contractor, Galliford Try’s Partnership business, the scheme comprises three separate 6-7 storey blocks, each constructed around a reinforced concrete frame. Regular full height glazing panels punctuate an intricate façade framework of high quality brickwork, carefully detailed by architects Maccreanor Lavington to reflect and enhance the heritage of the surrounding historical dockside buildings.

The Challenge

To achieve the distinctive historical warehouse visual, the architects included a feature continuous soldier course around the building at every floor, with deep brickwork reveals at window heads to add additional depth and dimension to the façades. Precision brickwork was critical to achieve the architect’s vision, as was the ability to work quickly to meet a tight time schedule.

The Solution

Working closely with Galliford Try, Ibstock Kevington developed a complete solution using new Nexus® lightweight brick faced soffit units. Nexus, a two-part solution that combines Ibstock Kevington’s custom-designed brick slip-faced stainless steel soffit units with a high integrity stainless steel MDC brickwork support system from Ancon, provides a lightweight, precision-fit solution that can be installed quickly and simply without recourse to the usual heavy lifting equipment.

Faced with real brick slips specially cut from the main brickwork batch, and permanently precision bonded to the required pattern, the prefabricated units were fixed back directly to the shelf angle and, using vertical and horizontal adjustment built into the system, perfectly aligned and matched to the main façade brickwork.

To meet the exceptional requirements of this project, Ibstock Kevington prefabricated a total of 2300 linear metres of the Nexus units and delivered to site to meet the contractor’s agreed schedule.

Related Projects

Bow River Village, London

This mixed use development, on the southern fringes of the Olympic Park, utilised the Nexus system to achieve flawless brick-faced soffits to the hundreds of door and window heads.

Silchester Estate, Kensington & Chelsea, London

Nexus® brick faced soffit units and lintels were installed at the window heads and entrance way of this major regeneration project on the edge of the 1969 Silchester estate.

Muirfield Community Centre, Scotland

235 Nexus® brick faced soffit units and lintels were installed in window heads and ground level colonnades of this modern, purpose-built community hub.