AN HISTORIC building on the South Shields riverside is to be revamped in a £1.8m residential scheme by social landlord Isos Housing.

Holborn House stands opposite the Customs House on Mill Dam in South Shields and the building comprises a Victorian block at the front of the site with a large 1970s extension behind.

The existing flats are all very small, with shared facilities and not fit for 21st Century living standards. The building also contains what used to be a care home, now decommissioned.

Isos is working with architects JDDK (Jane Darbyshire & David Kendall), contractor Turney Wylde, quantity surveyors Elliotts and engineers 3E to transform the building into a block of 28 apartments, each with modern facilities.

The building will be completely remodelled with the high-spec apartments all accessed from a central ‘street’ to bring daylight flooding into the core of the block, which was previously lit only by electric light.

Isos’s brief called for “a radical redesign” of Holborn House to provide “an inspirational environment” equal to any purpose-built housing while retaining the unique quality of the existing building.

JDDK beat off competition from four architectural practices to win the tender with their striking ideas for the scheme.

The resultant successful design positions the apartments around the perimeter of the building to benefit from natural light, ensuring that the existing windows of the Victorian structure can be retained, whilst providing an opportunity to increase the window sizes in the newer elements of the building. A new lift will link all floors. Isos is again collaborating with Turney Wylde, having already joined forces on the development of 14 affordable homes in Beadnell, Northumberland – due for completion at the end of this year.

Simon Rycroft, development and regeneration manager for Isos, said: “We are very excited about the potential of this project. JDDK have come up with an imaginative concept to remodel the building, which will transform what was quite a dark and unwelcoming environment so that it provides homes fit for the 21st Century.”

Mura Mullan, project architect and director of JDDK, said: “It was a very challenging but hugely interesting brief and we're obviously delighted to have been chosen by Isos for this project.

“The brief was very specific about not altering the spirit of this historic building and we feel our scheme proposes minimal external changes with a radical and contemporary internal design.”

Ken Parkin, managing director of Turney Wylde, said: “Holborn House is the latest project that we are working on with Isos and is a fantastic project to be involved with due to the building’s historic status.

“Although there are a number of construction challenges to overcome – for example access to the site is very restricted – we are confident that the final apartments will be light, modern, spacious and highly sought-after.”

Dating from the late 19th Century, Holborn House was purchased by one of the founding partners of Isos in 1984. It had previously been a hostel run by the St Vincent de Paul charity.

The basement of the building is still let to the Mission To Seafarers and Isos is working with the charity to make some improvements to that portion of the building, alongside the wider works on Holborn House.