The Sutton Estate

The refurbishment of four historic residential blocks within Chelsea’s Sutton Estate, delivering modern, sustainable social housing while respecting conservation area context and improving estate-wide drainage, green space and accessibility.

The Sutton Estate is one of the country’s oldest purpose-built social housing developments, located in a newly designated conservation area in Chelsea. We were appointed to help deliver a sensitive refurbishment of four long-vacant blocks, modernising them to meet current housing standards while retaining their historic integrity.

Our engineering design supported major internal reconfiguration, including chimney removal and integration of new lift shafts. The team provided new steel frames, detailed roof remediation, and designed new foul and surface water drainage systems. A SuDS scheme was developed across the estate to manage surface water more sustainably, helping reduce pressure on the combined sewer.

Our work also included the design of a new single-storey estate office and substation. The project delivered 81 high-quality, social-rented homes with enhanced access, amenity spaces and no net loss of affordable floor space.