Jeweller’s Studio with Shop in London
The neighbourhoods south of the Thames have been experiencing change for years. The Shard – the skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano – was, for example, recently completed in the heterogeneous fabric at the London Bridge station. But close by there are also quiet lanes that still offer evidence of their medieval origins. It is here that, in 2009, jewellery designer Alex Monroe acquired a small, one-storey shop at the end of a row of buildings – the purchase agreement also included the right to top it with a three-storey brick structure. The architects, however, had a wood structure in mind; it would be lightweight enough to perch atop steel columns concealed in the cladding of the storefront.
