A Landmark Transformation

When WilkinsonEyre first encountered the historic Riding School at St John’s Wood Square, the practice immediately recognised the potential of its scale and character. With its soaring volume, magnificent 18-metre timber roof beams and history stretching back to the 1820s, the Grade II-listed building offered a remarkable opportunity: to preserve the qualities that made it special while transforming it into The Riding Club, a supremely comfortable, inspiring private members’ club with state-of-the-art amenities.

Realising that vision required considerable architectural and engineering ingenuity. “There were unique technical challenges,” says Stafford Critchlow, architect and Board Director at WilkinsonEyre, who led the project with Ivy Chan, Associate Director. “Our brief was to take a historic Grade II-listed building that had never been heated – a building highly valued by the local community and visited by royalty – and transform it into a supremely comfortable, inspiring and high-end private members’ club with state-of-the-art amenities.”

Those challenges included supporting the entire brick building on a capping beam – a structural support running under all four walls. This delicate manoeuvre, performed by specialist engineering contractor McGee, allowed workers to dig 26 feet (8 m) below ground in preparation to install a 65.5-foot (20 m) swimming pool. “It was quite something,” says Critchlow, with remarkable understatement.

“The Riding School sits at the heart of St John’s Wood Square with a wonderful history, visited over the years by royals including George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Princess Diana,” explains Critchlow. “It’s a beautiful building, but it was built as an agricultural building, without a ground-floor slab. What it did have were these wonderful tall doors suitable for a horse and seated rider to enter, a roof with a magnificent structure of 18-metre timber beams over a vast open space, and a viewing gallery,” he says, adding: “The dramatic soaring volume and beautiful beams have always had instant impact as you enter, but when we first arrived on site, you had to look hard to see just how special it was.”

The result is a winning example of heritage-meets-modern-functionality. Now renamed The Riding Club, the building is designed to promote residents’ health, wellbeing and longevity while also serving as a welcoming and cocooning space for working, entertaining and relaxing.

The vast ground floor retains its exhilarating impact, but now with the addition of a cutting-edge and highly versatile professional-grade ASB GlassFloor – a rarity in any private development. At the touch of a button, it converts between perfectly marked courts for tennis, netball, volleyball, pickleball, football, badminton or basketball. Light streams in through the vast double-glazed sash windows, restored and extended to floor level, and there’s immediate access outdoors through a door into the private Sanctuary Garden.

Below-ground facilities include the swimming pool, sauna and steam rooms, cold plunge pool and a gymnasium. There is a separate training studio and a spa with three treatment rooms. A business suite, cinema and games room are on the same floor, with a full catering kitchen and private dining room and club lounge on the first floor. A below-ground hotel-style porte cochère and extensive concierge and reception areas complete the residents’ club area.

The transformation of the Riding School is a story of painstaking, detailed work and complex technical achievement. With exceptional sports facilities, an effortlessly elegant health and wellness centre and high-impact visual drama, The Riding Club is a grand design that honours its heritage and embraces the future – and it is a fitting centrepiece for St John’s Wood Square.