City & Country Submits Planning Application to Transform Kingswood Office Building

On Wednesday 18th March, City & Country submitted a planning application to transform the historic building, with its rotunda, staff swimming pool and courtyards, into a mixture of around 122 retirement properties, around 177 private residential apartments, a private members’ sports club, and office space. Architect Haworth Tompkins have led on the design for Kingswood, with input from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council planning officers and representatives from Historic England on the proposals for the site.

As well as the conversion of Legal & General House into homes and flexible office space, the plans include bringing the locally listed former St Monica’s House school building on site back into use as apartments, as well as the conversion of former leisure facilities into a private members’ sports club, which will be home to the restored indoor swimming pool, a new outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, spa, restaurant and other facilities.

Tree planting, landscaping and a new lake will provide new habitats for wildlife, and the development will include around 16 acres of public open space including a children’s play area to benefit the whole community. A Community Infrastructure Levy, paid by City & Country, will contribute to the provision of local infrastructure including healthcare and education.

Simon Vernon Harcourt, Design & Planning Director for City & Country, says: “Here at City & Country we are incredibly proud of our success at converting, restoring and preserving heritage assets – and we are looking forward to working on Legal & General House. This is a fantastic modern building, with so much potential to be a local landmark for generations to come, but due to changes in working practices it simply isn’t needed as a company headquarters any more. By converting it into homes, particularly apartments for those who need extra care, we will be not only preserving an important piece of architectural heritage, but also providing facilities that are much-needed by the local community. Our ambitions for Kingswood will expand on the already consented retirement scheme, while delivering a more viable mix of tenures, including homes for private sale. Kingswood remains a site of significant local interest, and we look forward to bringing it back into local use once more.”

City & Country is a leading family-owned housebuilder with extensive experience of projects involving heritage buildings – both converting and preserving them, and incorporating sensitive modern additions to keep them relevant to modern needs. As the new owner of Legal & General House and its 47.5-acre site, City & Country will be drawing on its successful track record of previous sensitive conversion schemes to ensure that this architecturally significant building is preserved for the community through adapting it to find a new purpose.

“Legal & General House is a much-loved building, and we want local people to know that it is in good hands,” adds Simon. “As a company, City & Country has been in business for more than 60 years, evolving from being a local builder into the UK’s leading heritage developer. During that time, we’ve had the pleasure of restoring some of the country’s most significant and at-risk historic buildings, creating thousands of high-quality new homes and winning multiple awards along the way. We are proud to add Kingswood to this list.”

City & Country expects work to begin on site during 2027, with the first new residents expected to move into their new homes in 2028.

City & Country has successfully worked on many similar projects around the UK, including the transformation of a Grade II listed Victorian Hospital in South West London, and a Grade II Listed Imperial Tobacco Company headquarters into a mix of conversion and new-build apartments in Bristol.