171 Victoria Street
An Urban Retreat Above the City.
Location: London, UK
Client: Kirkglade Ltd
Year: on-going
Area: 0.59 hectare
A Landscape-Led Refurbishment in the Heart of Westminster
URBAN was commissioned by Motcomb to deliver the landscape design for 171 Victoria Street, working closely with Savills as project managers and TP Bennett as lead architect. The project forms part of a comprehensive commercial refurbishment in central Westminster and includes both the public realm at street level and a series of roof terraces above. In an intensely urban setting, the landscape strategy sought to improve the everyday experience of the building from the ground up—enhancing the relationship with the street while creating calm, high-quality outdoor spaces for building users above the city.
Repairing the Public Realm and Street Interface
At ground level, the project focuses on repairing and upgrading the public realm along Victoria Street, improving legibility, accessibility, and environmental quality in a busy and constrained streetscape. The design introduces high-quality materials, integrated planting, and improved pedestrian space to soften the building’s interface with the street and contribute positively to the wider urban environment. Planting is carefully selected to be robust and low maintenance, bringing seasonal interest and greenery into a hard-edged context while supporting urban biodiversity. These interventions help to humanise the street, strengthen the building’s civic presence, and reinforce the role of landscape as essential urban infrastructure rather than decorative afterthought.
Roof Terraces as Inhabitable Urban Ground
Above, the landscape extends across multiple roof levels, transforming previously underutilised spaces into a sequence of calm, well-defined outdoor rooms. The roof terraces are designed to respond to exposure, wind, and structural constraints, with resilient planting selected for durability, year-round structure, and longevity. Integrated planters provide shelter and enclosure, while seating and circulation are carefully arranged to support informal use, wellbeing, and small gatherings. Together, the public realm and roof landscapes form a cohesive, vertically layered strategy—embedding nature at multiple levels of the building. At 171 Victoria Street, the project demonstrates how landscape can quietly improve both street life and working environments, creating healthier, more generous places within the dense fabric of the city.
