Summers Street Lofts

In 1992, Manhattan Loft Corporation introduced loft-living to London with Summers Street Lofts in Clerkenwell. A radical concept at the time, an abandoned art deco printworks in an unloved area of town was transformed into 23 open-plan loft apartments – pioneering an alternative way of living that endures to this day.

The original structure was built by Stanley Peach, the man behind Wimbledon’s Centre Court, featuring a steel frame structure, exceptionally high ceilings and the largest areas of glass permitted by the London Building Act. Impeccably redesigned by award-winning architect Piers Gough, Summers Street Lofts retained Peach’s distinct industrial aesthetic and celebrated its unique dimensions by inviting residents to adapt and customise their own living space.

Widely recognised as London’s first loft conversion and the cutting-edge catalyst behind Clerkenwell’s revival, Summers Street Lofts was MLC’s first development and the start of an extraordinary journey through some of London’s most famous and forgotten postcodes.

SUMMERS STREET LOFTS BECAME AN ICONIC DEVELOPMENT

NICK FOULKES

HANDELSMAN WAS POSSIBLY THE FIRST COMMERCIAL DEVELOPER OF LOFTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. NO ONE, NOT EVEN IN NEW YORK, HAD REALLY TRIED TO MAKE BIG BUSINESS OUT OF LOFT DEVELOPMENTS.

THE GUARDIAN