8 Bleeding Heart Yard on the corner of Greville Street, wrapped in a rust-brown folded aluminium screen modelled on the site's former buildings, Farringdon

8 Bleeding Heart Yard, Greville Street. Folded aluminium cladding and windows. Farringdon, London EC1N.

The folded perforated aluminium screen, PPC aluminium cladding and windows, for main contractor RED Construction. Shown here from the building before, through the design, to the screen going on.

8 Bleeding Heart Yard on completion, on its street corner.

The facade and glazing package, for RED Construction.

Package: Folded perforated screen, PPC cladding, windows and glass
Main contractor: RED Construction Group
Client: Seaforth Land
Architect: Groupwork, led by Amin Taha
Our package: 2021 to 2022
Location: 20 to 23 Greville Street, Farringdon EC1N

8 Bleeding Heart Yard is the deep refurbishment and extension of a 1970s office building for Seaforth Land, 35,566 sq ft of office-led workplace. As facade subcontractor to RED Construction we delivered the aluminium facade and glazing package: the folded perforated screen, PPC aluminium cladding, windows and glass units. The RIBA Journal's technical case study credits the folded metal screen to Dmitro.

Part of: cladding and facade packages

The building as it was, the design, then the screen and windows going on.

The 1970s building.

A 1970s office block at the entrance to Bleeding Heart Yard, in the Hatton Garden Conservation Area. The refurbishment kept most of its concrete structure and replaced the envelope.

Greville Street before the refurbishment, a 1970s brick office block with bands of windows between Victorian buildings, people and a van in the street — 01Greville Street before the works, the 1970s block at centre.
Greville Street before the refurbishment: the 1970s office block, with its long bands of windows, between Victorian brick neighbours, a letting board on the corner and the street busy with people.

Corner of a 1970s dark brick office block with ribbon windows and a projecting concrete bay window, a crane in the sky behind — 02The old block on its corner.
The existing building on its corner before the works: dark brown brick, continuous bands of windows on every floor and a concrete bay window projecting at the corner, with a crane beyond.

Closer view of the same dark brick corner with a concrete bay window and bands of windows, red heart-shaped signs at street level — 03The same corner, closer, with its concrete bay.
Closer to the same corner: the concrete bay window, the ribbon glazing and the brick, with a restaurant's signs at street level.

Groupwork's design.

Groupwork, led by Amin Taha, based the new envelope on archival research into eight Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian buildings that once stood on the site, reinterpreted as a folded, perforated aluminium screen. Images 04 to 06 are design-stage images, not the finished building.

Design-stage cutaway drawing of a folded perforated mesh wall over the existing structure, with numbered callouts — 04Design drawing: the new mesh wall over the existing structure.
A design-stage cutaway drawing titled "Detail of new mesh wall over existing structure": the folded perforated panels drawn over the retained building on their supporting rails, with numbered callouts.

Design-stage visualisation of the refurbished building on its street corner, with a dark folded facade and dormered roof storeys — 05Design visualisation of the corner.
A computer visualisation from the design stage: the corner with its folded screen, dormered roof storeys above and glazed frontages at street level. Not a photograph.

Design-stage visualisation of the building from a cobbled yard, its screen rising to chimney forms, cranes in the sky behind — 06Design visualisation from Bleeding Heart Yard.
A design-stage visualisation from the cobbled yard: the stepped profile of the screen and its chimney forms against the sky, with cranes behind. Not a photograph.

The screen and windows going on.

Our package on the elevations: folded perforated aluminium panels from 50 mm to 1,200 mm deep, fixed to brackets on vertical rails, with the PPC aluminium cladding, the windows and their glass units.

Building facade clad in dark panels up to its dormers, with scaffolding and a white sheeted wrap around the lower floors — 07The front in dark panels, scaffold and wrap at the base.
The street elevation during the works, seen from below: the stepped facade profile clad in dark panels up to the dormered roof storeys, with scaffold and a sheeted wrap still around the lower floors.

Upper floors of a facade clad in dark folded panels, multi-pane windows and an arched dormer window against a grey sky — 08The upper floors and an arched dormer, closer.
A closer view of the upper floors: the dark panels folded round the window reveals and the arched window of a roof-storey dormer.

Street view of a building clad in dark panels, scaffold and hoarding at its base, Victorian brick buildings further along — 09Along the street, hoarding still at the base.
Looking along the street to the building: dark panels across the upper floors, scaffold and hoarding at ground level, and Victorian brick buildings beyond.

Facade in dark panels on the upper floors, the lower floors still exposed behind scaffold and protective sheeting — 10The front, the lower floors still open.
The main elevation from the pavement: dark panels across the upper floors, while the lower floors still show the existing building behind the scaffold.

Corner of a building clad in dark panels, seen from below, boards and scaffold tubes at the lower corner — 11The corner from below, boards still at its foot.
The corner seen from the pavement: dark panels on the floors above, and boards and scaffold still at the lower corner.

Scaffold walkway with timber boards and tubes running alongside dark perforated facade panels — 12On the scaffold beside the perforated panels.
Along a scaffold lift close to the facade: dark perforated panels fixed behind the scaffold tubes, boards and ladder.

The roof storeys from above.

The two new roof storeys are cross-laminated timber on glulam beams, with Hybrid Structures as the CLT-frame specialist. From the air, the floors below are still in scaffold and sheeting.

Aerial view of a building in scaffold and white sheeting with exposed timber roof storeys and solar panels, among Farringdon office blocks — 13The building from the air, its timber roof storeys going up.
A drone view over Farringdon during the works: the building wrapped in scaffold and white sheeting, its new timber roof storeys exposed, solar panels and plant on the roof, among the surrounding office blocks.

Street view of 8 Bleeding Heart Yard, a tall building with a folded metal facade and dormers, beside the red Bleeding Heart tavern

Complete in December 2022.

The building has since won the 2023 New London Award for Workplace, a 2024 Civic Trust Award, the 2024 AJ Retrofit & Reuse Award for Positive Addition, RIBA London and RIBA National Awards in 2025, and the 2025 Camden Design Award for a Major Project.

The finished building along Greville Street, beside the Bleeding Heart tavern. Photo: Tim Soar.

The folded aluminium screen.

Our screen, cladding and windows on the finished elevations. The folds stiffen each panel, and the fixings are left exposed for inspection and maintenance.

The finished building seen from a cobbled yard, clad in a rust-brown folded screen with dormers above and a colonnade at ground level — The finished corner from Bleeding Heart Yard.

Corner bay window wrapped in stepped, rust-brown perforated aluminium panels — The corner bay, folded in perforated aluminium.

Close view of folded rust-brown perforated panels around a bay and window reveals — Folds around the bay and the window reveals.

Close-up of stepped perforated aluminium panels framing windows — Perforated panels around the windows, close up. Photo: Tim Soar.

Upper floors of the folded rust-brown screen with rows of multi-pane windows — The upper floors and their windows.

Roof-level chimney form clad in perforated metal panels beside flat dark cladding and a glazed storey — A chimney form clad in perforated panels. Photo: Tim Soar.

Dark perforated metal balustrade panels along a balcony, London rooftops beyond — Perforated balustrade on a balcony, over the rooftops.

Bleeding Heart Yard street sign on a maroon facade, the folded perforated aluminium screen of the building to the left — The Bleeding Heart Yard sign, the screen beside it.

Greville Street and the yard.

The scheme opened previously inactive frontages to the street, added a two-storey colonnade at Bleeding Heart Yard and moved the main entrance onto the yard.

People walking past the ground floor of 8 Bleeding Heart Yard on Greville Street, its folded facade in low sun — The Greville Street front at street level.

Greville Street with 8 Bleeding Heart Yard beyond the red Bleeding Heart tavern — Along Greville Street, the Bleeding Heart tavern on the corner.

Busy street with trees and brick buildings, the dark dormered roofline of 8 Bleeding Heart Yard in the middle distance — The building in the middle distance, down the street.

The retained frame and the timber storeys.

The retained concrete frame, the new cross-laminated timber storeys and the interiors are the work of the main contractor and the wider project team; our package ends at the facade and its windows.

Open office floor with concrete columns and soffit, patched old walls between windows — A retained concrete floor, the old walls left bare. Photo: Tim Soar.

Open office floor with retained concrete columns, exposed services and pale floor tiles — An open floor in the retained concrete frame.

Stair wall with plaster cut away to expose old concrete and blockwork, a steel handrail in front — A stair wall stripped back to the old structure. Photo: Tim Soar.

Cross-laminated timber walls angled around a gallery with a black rail and hanging linear lights — Timber walls folded around a gallery. Photo: Luca Piffaretti.

Angled cross-laminated timber reveals around deep-set dormer windows — Timber dormer reveals, windows set deep. Photo: Luca Piffaretti.

Long open floor under a timber roof structure, an arched window at one side and a gallery rail — A roof-storey floor under the timber structure. Photo: Luca Piffaretti.

Double-height timber room with glulam columns and a gallery — A double-height timber space and its gallery. Photo: Tim Soar.

Arched window framed in cross-laminated timber, neighbouring rooftops beyond — An arched window cut into the timber wall. Photo: Tim Soar.

Angled timber struts and a glulam column along a gallery edge, linear lights above — Timber struts along the gallery edge. Photo: Tim Soar.

Tall arched window at the end of a cross-laminated timber dormer, polished floor below — A tall arched window in a timber dormer. Photo: Tim Soar.

Cross-laminated timber room ending in a tall arched window over rooftops — An arched window at the end of a timber room.

Glulam columns and beams across an open floor with timber walls behind — Timber columns and beams across an open floor.

Julius Baer's UK headquarters, and workspace for jewellers.

Pre-let as Julius Baer's UK headquarters, with a fit-out that ran into May 2023, the building also holds 1,486 sq ft of affordable workspace for Hatton Garden's jewellery trade, and takes its name from the yard in Dickens's Little Dorrit.

20 to 23 Greville Street, Farringdon, London EC1N 8SS

Photographs by Tim Soar and Luca Piffaretti are credited where they appear. Images 04 to 06 are design-stage images of Groupwork's scheme.