29 Mill Street, China Wharf

29 Mill Street, China Wharf

A speculative residential development designed between 1982 and 1983 in Post-Modern style by the architects Campbell Zogolovitch Wilkinson and Gough (CZWG).

The building comprises a reinforced concrete frame with steel balconies and windows. The gable elevation is faced in brick, while the rear is finished in concrete. The structure contains six residential storeys with a roof terrace, raised above an office level on the ground floor. To the south there is an underground car park. An entrance door in the south-eastern corner at ground level leads to a small lobby containing a lift and stairs serving the upper storeys. The stairs also provide access to offices and flats in the neighbouring Reeds Wharf 'B' building (Grade II). Each residential floor is composed of apartments accessed from central corridors. Most apartments are planned on a so-called scissor section, where interlocking dwellings step over a central corridor to allow windows on both elevations. Originally, most apartments were designed with open-plan living rooms and adjoining kitchens on the river side and two bedrooms on the landward side. Roof terraces are also present.

The exterior presents three contrasting elevations. The river-facing elevation is constructed in in situ concrete with steel flanges evoking the riverine heritage of the area. The striking coral red central section is shaped to suggest a pagoda surmounted by a bold semi-circular arch, consisting of three bays and seven storeys projecting over the Thames on four substantial black-painted piers. The central section is pierced with large semi-circular windows and projecting balconies carried on curved steel segments. The building's corners are canted and fully glazed to maximise river views. Between the supporting piers is a boat-cum-balcony bearing the name "the Great Harry", after the English carrack or "great ship" built for the fleet of King Henry VIII. Access from the riverfront to the rear of the building and the main entrance is via an underpass where 29 Mill Street meets New Concordia Wharf to the west. The entrance arches are made of stock brick with coral red or pink concrete above, their angles and shapes reflecting the riverside elevation.

The gable elevation facing Bermondsey Wall Walk abuts the former warehouse known as Reeds Wharf B in a 19th-century warehouse idiom. Formed of stock brick, this elevation features three bays of segmental windows whose cills progressively rise from left to right as the window size above reduces. A central loophole frame, a feature characteristic of 19th-century warehouses, houses the junction with Reeds Wharf to the east, which appears to be sliding into the loophole. The main entrance lies below the loophole, recessed within a broad brick arch, with double timber doors featuring multiple lantern-like vertical lights.

The rear (south-west) elevation is cantilevered over the basement and first floor. Nine scalloped bays of white-painted concrete reference riverside grain silos but may also be interpreted as the giant flutes of a classically inspired column. They rise from inverted semi-dome bases painted coral red. The scallops incorporate angled windows designed to prevent overlooking of neighbouring properties to the south. To the north-west, the building is attached to New Concordia Wharf (Grade II).

The entrance foyer is designed in a jazz moderne style with polished black granite floors and bright-blue steel stair rails, which end in the lobby in a corkscrew-like spiral. The corridors accessing the apartments feature chunky bright-blue dado rails and ebony black doorframes surrounding coral red doors with brass fittings and up-lighters. Between the entrance doors are a number of panelled cupboards. The spiral design of the stair rail is also reflected in red metal safety barriers and window catches at the east end of the corridors.

The apartments were not inspected, but based on available imagery from 2017, they were originally open-plan with white-walled, functionally fitted interiors, distinguished only by the semi-circular partition between living room and kitchen. Some refitting of these interiors has since taken place, with some apartments formed from former offices.