Contract Administration in Clerkenwell

Documented building context

Islington’s January 2002 guidelines for Clerkenwell Green, Charterhouse Square and Hat and Feathers describe an area formed by incremental development, with surviving buildings from nine centuries. Paragraph 1.3 links its character to the proximity of manufacturing, workshops, wholesale activity and shops. This is a dated account of the three named conservation settings, rather than a current use survey of every premises.

Existing-building records for the tender

Ask the managing party which building records can be supplied and which external faces are accessible. Any need for a separate specialist assessment should be considered against the actual issue and agreed scope. The area’s long commercial history does not answer a present technical question inside the home.

Clerkenwell tender and contract decisions

A Clerkenwell tender should describe the current premises and intended works rather than assume that the historical workshop setting establishes today's use. Put the entrance, occupied floors, loading arrangements and shared spaces on the issued plan. Identify which retained features the design proposes to repair or adapt. The guidelines' account of incremental development is a reason to investigate the particular building, not to assign one construction type or permission history to every property in the three conservation settings.

Where a former workshop has become residential accommodation, distinguish the conversion's partitions and services from the earlier shell. Specify investigations at openings or floor connections that the alteration relies upon, with the responsible designer and decision point identified. Tenderers should price the same limits of opening-up, temporary protection and making good. If the findings change the proposed work, retain them with the revised detail and JCT instruction. A historical industrial description cannot settle the value or responsibility for an unforeseen condition.

For work beside an operating business or another dwelling, record the agreed occupation and access arrangements. Separate the building contract from any consent, licence or private right that needs its own adviser. Programme inspections around the actual interfaces that will be concealed. At completion, assemble drawings, tests and outstanding items by floor and work package, identifying what the contractor was instructed to deliver. The record should not imply that excluded premises, inaccessible shared structure or the wider building's entire compliance position has been certified by a local refurbishment appointment.

HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor.

Contract scope

• Islington: Clerkenwell Green, Charterhouse Square and Hat and Feathers Conservation Area Design Guidelines, January 2002 — PDF page 3, paragraphs 1.2–1.4; paragraph 1.3, incremental fabric and varied activities. Cover page 1 records January 2002; historic character, not current use-class policy.

• Major works
• Tendering
• Clerk of Works
• Employer's Agent
• Insurance reinstatement

• Islington area guide
• Islington
• Angel
• City Of London
• Barbican
• Holborn

Professional profiles · RICS regulation