ROBERT Brooks may be up in the air, but his plans to rebuild and refurbish Bonhams’ Bond Street headquarters certainly aren’t.
In fact the company's chairman took to this
cherrypicker just before Christmas to celebrate the completion of
the first phase of the £30m project, the refitting of Blenstock
House, the partially listed building that will house their
temporary salerooms while the next phase of the project takes
place.
This will involve the demolition of the
network of buildings towards the Bond Street and Haunch of Venison
Yard sides of the complex and their replacement with a
state-of-the-art edifice of salerooms, offices, meetings rooms and
a cafe that Bonhams expect to rival any international saleroom in
the world.
"The first phase has been completed on time
and under budget," Mr Brooks toldATG. "That's no mean feat when you
consider that the building hasn't been rewired since it was built
in 1937."
Bonhams' biggest fear was that the
disruption caused by the work - which has to meet tight deadlines
to fit in with London's Crossrail project running underneath the
buildings - would damage their sales programme. As it stands,
however, the past three months have seen the company achieve a
string of record prices to bring them their most successful sales
series since Mr Brooks formed the company a decade ago by bringing
together elements of the former Bonhams firm, Phillips and his
Brooks motoring auctions business.
The new complex is due to open in December
2013.
For
a view of the architect's vision of the complex, click
here.
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