City & Country has submitted plans to transform the Grade II* listed Legal & General House in Kingswood, Surrey, into a residential scheme.
The housebuilder purchased Legal & General’s former HQ last year and intends to redevelop the building into around 122 retirement properties, circa 177 private residential apartments, a private members’ sports club and office space.
The plans include bringing the locally listed former St Monica’s House school building on site back into use as apartments, as well as the conversion of former leisure facilities into a private members’ sports club, which will be home to the restored indoor swimming pool, a new outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, spa, restaurant and other facilities.
Tree planting, landscaping and a new lake will provide new habitats for wildlife, and the development will include around 16 acres of public open space.
Haworth Tompkins has led on the scheme’s design with input from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council’s planning officers and representatives from Historic England.
Simon Vernon Harcourt, design and planning director for City & Country, said: “Here at City & Country we are incredibly proud of our success at converting, restoring and preserving heritage assets – and we are looking forward to working on Legal & General House. This is a fantastic modern building, with so much potential to be a local landmark for generations to come, but due to changes in working practices it simply isn’t needed as a company headquarters any more.
“By converting it into homes, particularly apartments for those who need extra care, we will be not only preserving an important piece of architectural heritage, but also providing facilities that are much-needed by the local community. Our ambitions for Kingswood will expand on the already consented retirement scheme, while delivering a more viable mix of tenures, including homes for private sale. Kingswood remains a site of significant local interest, and we look forward to bringing it back into local use once more.”
He continued: “Legal & General House is a much-loved building, and we want local people to know that it is in good hands. As a company, City & Country has been in business for more than 60 years, evolving from being a local builder into the UK’s leading heritage developer. During that time, we’ve had the pleasure of restoring some of the country’s most significant and at-risk historic buildings, creating thousands of high quality new homes and winning multiple awards along the way. We are proud to add Kingswood to this list.”
