The restored RACS Ltd faience frontage on Upper Tooting Road, with the new brick apartment blocks behind it, Tooting

RACS Redevelopment, Upper Tooting Road. Petrarch stone-effect rainscreen. Tooting, London SW17.

Designed rainscreen and Petrarch stone-effect cladding on the new building behind the retained 1920s frontage, for main contractor Henry Construction.

The restored RACS frontage on Upper Tooting Road, the new apartment blocks behind it.

The rainscreen package, for Henry Construction.

Package: Designed rainscreen and stone cladding
Panels: 10 mm Petrarch, Dorset Smooth Matt
Main contractor: Henry Construction
Client: Barrowfen Properties
Architect: Chetwoods
Scheme delivered: In four phases, November 2020 to February 2022

The RACS Redevelopment, also known as Dadu's Parade, replaced the buildings behind the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society's 1920s store at 180 to 214 Upper Tooting Road with homes, a hotel, shops and community space. Dmitro Development delivered the designed rainscreen and stone-cladding package for Henry Construction, with 10 mm Petrarch stone-effect panels supplied through APS.

Part of: cladding and facade packages

The RACS store, before the works.

The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society store in two historic photographs. Its locally listed 1920s frontage was retained; the buildings behind it were replaced.

Historic black-and-white photograph of the RACS store corner in Tooting with a banner reading This store will open Dec the 5th — The RACS store on Upper Tooting Road, before it opened.

Historic black-and-white photograph of the RACS Ltd store corner with a 70th anniversary dividend sale banner — The same corner, with a 70th anniversary sale banner.

The works in the order of the project record, May 2020 to February 2022.

New structure behind the retained frontage.

By May 2020 the new building was going up behind the 1920s RACS frontage, which was kept in place for the whole of the works. Henry Construction was the main contractor.

New building wrapped in white sheeting and scaffolding beside an older two-storey shop, a tower crane above — 01The new building in scaffold and wrap along the street.
The new building under scaffolding and white protective wrap, its top floors still open, beside the older two-storey shop at the end of the parade, with a tower crane behind.

Top of the faience RACS Ltd frontage with a new storey under construction behind the parapet and a tower crane beyond — 02The RACS parapet, the new top storey going up behind it.
Above the retained RACS Ltd lettering and cornice, the new top storey is framed out behind the faience parapet, with a tower crane beyond and scaffold tubes at the corner.

Rainscreen and Petrarch stone-effect cladding.

The approved materials schedule places the Petrarch finish on the Hebdon Road hotel elevation, the residential entrances and the car-park elevation. Photographs 03 to 07 show the buildings under scaffold and wrap during the works.

Faience frontage enclosed in scaffolding with site hoarding and vans in the street — 03The RACS frontage fully scaffolded, from the street.
The retained frontage inside a full scaffold, hoarding along the pavement and site vans at the kerb.

RACS Ltd faience frontage with dark bronze windows, scaffold wrap along the ground floor and a crane behind — 04The frontage with its scaffold wrapped at street level.
The faience frontage, its bronze windows and RACS Ltd lettering, with Hy-Scaff wrap along the ground floor and a tower crane behind the parapet.

Corner of a new building in scaffolding and white sheeting behind blue site hoarding — 05A corner of the new building under scaffold.
A corner of the new building in scaffold and white wrap, its upper floors open behind the lifts, with blue site hoarding along the pavement.

RACS Ltd frontage with scaffold removed from its face, wrapped scaffold on the building to the right and a brick block to the left — 06The frontage clear of scaffold, the new building still wrapped.
The RACS frontage clear of scaffold on its main face, with scaffold and wrap still up on the new building to its right and the brick apartment block to its left.

New buildings in scaffolding and white sheeting along a street, Henry Construction hoarding at pavement level — 07Henry Construction's hoarding along the street.
The new blocks along the street in white wrap and scaffold, with Henry Construction's hoarding at pavement level.

Brick apartment blocks with glass balconies above shopfronts along Upper Tooting Road, Tooting

Complete in February 2022.

Behind the retained frontage: 41 homes, a 96-bedroom hotel, up to 2,105 m² of shops and flexible commercial space, and 173 m² of community space. The finished building holds a Premier Inn, a Lidl and the apartments.

The new apartments and shops along Upper Tooting Road.

Upper Tooting Road, finished.

The RACS frontage, with its faience and bronze windows, was cleaned and repaired by others, with DBR (London) on masonry trials and Darwen Terracotta advising on replacement faience; our rainscreen and Petrarch cladding are on the new building behind it.

Brick apartment block with dark balconies and glass balustrades above shopfronts, a pale-clad entrance at the left — Finished apartments above the shops.

Upper Tooting Road with the restored RACS frontage on the corner and a glazed storey set back above it — The RACS corner on the high street today.

A town-centre site back in use.

Approved by Wandsworth in August 2018 under reference 2017/4726, with Ian Sayer & Co as project manager, Tully De'Ath as structural engineer and a BREEAM Excellent target for the non-residential space.

180 to 214 Upper Tooting Road, Tooting, London SW17 7ER

The two black-and-white photographs are historic views of the RACS store, from before the works.