Historic barns transformed by Turner & Townsend
TURNER & Townsend, the construction and management consultancy, is opening new offices to house its growing team of professionals.
The group is launching the premises near its head office in Horsforth, Leeds. It has been working in Leeds for 40 years and relocated its head office to the 16th century Low Hall complex in 1992.
Grade two-listed Low Hall was formerly the residence of the Stanhope family. It is recorded that Low Hall played a part in the English Civil War when it was invaded by Royalists, who housed 200 horses in its barns.
Turner & Townsend has now transformed the historic barns into modern office space and has named its new offices The Stanhope Buildings after the family, who resided there for more than 400 years.
The Stanhope Buildings and Low Hall will house more than 250 staff and the company said it would reinforce its commitment to the region.
Tim Wray, Turner & Townsend’s Chairman, said: “We are proud of our beautiful new offices, which provide us with a fantastic head office base that reflects Turner & Townsend’s global success and the strength of our longstanding client relationships in the Yorkshire region.”
Last month, Turner & Townsend said it may reconsider floating on the stock market over the next year after seeing record order books thanks to its international business. The company pulled its £200m flotation earlier this year.
The group cancelled its flotation in February because of turbulence in the financial markets but announced a strong set of annual results in July when it said order books were at a record £157m with new projects including the ‘Shard of Glass’ building near London Bridge, the Beijing Great Wheel and the North West Metro project in Sydney.
The firm has been behind numerous high profile national projects including Heathrow airport, Victoria Station, and Chill FactorE – the UK’s biggest ski slope in Manchester, as well as key international developments across Europe and the Middle East.
It saw pre-tax profits up 29% to £17.1m on turnover up 20% to £179m in the year to April 30.
Over the last 12 months the group has opened eight new international offices in cities including Abu Dhabi and San Francisco and increased its workforce by 17.5% to 2,400.
