Restaurant plans for Vogue’s former headquarters

Westminster City Council has backed plans to convert the ground floor of fashion magazine Vogue’s former London headquarters into a mixed restaurant and retail space.

If approved, the ground floor space at Vogue House would increase from 72 sq m to 596 sq m, with plans to design it flexibly to ensure a configuration of one, two or three units.

The application, which was submitted by building owners Nautilina Limited in March, proposes a “deep retrofit with extension”, retaining parts of the existing building, including the main street facades, floor slabs and the main structural frame.

In a council sub-committee report dated 22 July, councillors recommended that plans to modify the building and its use at 1 Hanover Square should be supported.

The plans received three letters of objection, with one coming from the adjoining office at 3 Hanover Square, which raised concerns about potential “operational noise” from the conversion.

To mitigate the concerns, the committee report stated that operational measures would be introduced to minimise noise disturbance, including “limiting the use to a sit-down restaurant only, [and] that any bar would be ancillary to the main use”.

The application also proposes a replacement seventh floor, a new eighth floor, and a rooftop plant enclosure to provide further office floorspace.

The building was purpose-built for society magazine Vanity Fair and British Vogue founder Condé Nast in 1958. It served as the fashion magazine’s head office until it moved to the Adelphi Building on the Strand last year.

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