One of London’s most pioneering projects for steel reuse, retrofit and the circular economy is reaching an exciting milestone.  

At The Elephant – the refurbishment of the former House of Fraser at 318 Oxford Street – the reused steel columns that inspired our team’s award-winning ‘urban mining’ initiative, are set to be reinstalled to the top floor of the structure as the refurbishment reaches its final stages.  

We talk to Simon Bennett, Associate Director in our London studio, about the nearly seven year journey that has brought the project to this important stage. 

“My first involvement in the project was back in 2018 when ideas were at a very early stage. It was great to be involved in the early discussions about how to deal with the site and be able to help the client navigate the best path for their asset. We talked about all sorts of ideas, from façade retention through to adopting a ‘doughnut’ approach – which would entail keeping the outer bay of structure and demolishing the rest – to conclude that a deep refurbishment was the right approach. The building has good bones, so why demolish it?” 

It was during this process that the agent fed back that the new top floor restaurant would be even better if the design could relate in some way to the historic nature of the building.  

This sparked a thought in Bennett’s mind: Why not reuse some of the steelwork that was coming out of the demolition of the top two floors for the new restaurant structure?  

The historic building featured impressive steelwork with interesting rivet details that were in good shape. Exposing and showcasing them in the restaurant would provide a link to the building’s past, while reducing the amount of steel going off site to scrap.  

“It seemed pretty logical to me. The design team were supportive, but of course, as soon as you start doing something pioneering like this a lot of people pop up and say no-one ever does this, what about warrantees, it’s all very difficult, and so on. This was before the Steel Construction Institute had published any guidance on steelwork reuse, so some people felt it was quite ‘out-there’”.  

However, with strong support from the client and a creative mindset, our team worked through an audit of the steelwork available, and identified some steel columns that could be reused effectively in the restaurant.  

Bennett says: “It never occurred to me that the idea was particularly revolutionary. We’re re-using the vast majority of the steelwork in the building. The only difference with these columns is that we’re moving their location in the structure, not just leaving them where they are. But the industry’s response to our approach, and what it has gone on to inspire has been quite incredible. 

“The re-used columns are now in place at The Elephant and look fantastic. It marks the culmination of years of work, collaboration and dedication to steel reuse.”   

In a landmark for the Carbon Net Zero agenda, our team was also able to broker a deal to use 50 tonnes of the steel beams at FORE Partnership’s development, TBC.London, a low carbon office retrofit at Tower Bridge.  

It’s thought to be the first time that pre-war steel has been used in a UK construction project and marked a breakthrough in material reuse. The project won an award for ‘environmental and sustainability initiative’ at the prestigious British Construction Industry awards which reward projects that have delivered positive outcomes for society, and has been shortlisted for a ‘Climate Resilience’ award at The Pineapples 2025. 

Collaboration has been at the heart of the project and our team’s approach. We are also founding members of The Engineers Reuse Collective (tERC), a not-for-profit group of engineering firms committed to accelerating reuse in the built environment to support the transition of the UK’s construction industry to Net Zero Carbon. 

You can read more about the project here.