The Property team agreed Heads of terms to purchase 66 Hammersmith Road in May 2021. The existing office building had been unoccupied for at least a decade.

The site of the new store is located immediately adjacent to Olympia Exhibition Centre which is currently undergoing a £1.3billion redevelopment project. The proposals include a four screen arthouse cinema, a 1,500 seat theatre designed by Thomas Heatherwick, live music venue as well as restaurants, shops, café, two hotels and 550,000 sq foot of office space. The site of the new Big Yellow is next door to what is going to be a world leading cultural destination.

Historically, the site was occupied by housing with a mineral works until circa 1937. From this time onwards the site formed part of Cadby Hall, a food factory operated by J. Lyons & Co, Britain’s largest catering company, operating 250 cafes with as many as 33,000 people employed. Almost every grocer at the time sold Lyons products. Profit margins on their products was very low and efficiency in all areas of their business was required. This led the bakery to create the first business computer at Cadby Hall to support the clerical work of the company. In 1951 Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) was the first ever computer used for business applications, funded by Lyons with development by University of Cambridge. LEO Computers Ltd was formed in 1954 with LEOS installed in many British Companies and government departments including HM Customs and the Post Office. Big Yellow has employed an artist to design into the development, a permanent memorial to this historic, scientific achievement.

Big Yellow’s most ambitious and challenging building project to date, the new store proposal is for a self storage facility with commercial business and community spaces totalling 175,000 net sq ft MLA at basement, ground floor level with a further ten floors of storage.

The redevelopment proposals will be submitted to the local planning authority by January 2023. We are targeting a BREEAM accreditation of Excellent.

Demolition and site clearance works are due to start once planning approval is obtained for the redevelopment.

Nigel Hartley, Big Yellow Construction Director
 

• Architect:  Mountford Piggott
• Engineer:  Campbell Reith
• Project Manager & QS: Paragon
• Principle Designer (Health & Safety):  RGP Development Services
  M&E Services:  Silcock Dawson

Target Programme
Shell Construction: tba
Fit out due: tba
Store Opening Date: tba