Sir Robert McAlpine has been awarded the £133m main works contract for the Bank of England's refurbishment of its Grade I-listed Threadneedle Street headquarters in the City of London.
The Find a Tender award notice, published on 26 October, confirms McAlpine as main contractor for the Bank's Location Strategy Main Works. The contract is scheduled to run through to 19 November 2030.
The original procurement carried an estimated value of £141.67m. The £133m award is about £8.7m below that tender estimate, although the Bank's sectional procurement structure means the final scope instructed under the contract can change as individual packages are developed.
Bank junction in the City of London, with the Bank of England's Threadneedle Street headquarters beside the Royal Exchange. Photo: London Construction Magazine.
Main works will be instructed in sections
The main works cover general pre-construction services, section-specific pre-construction work and preliminaries alongside a series of physical refurbishment packages. The procurement documents identify preparatory works, replacement of core infrastructure, the ground floor, auditorium, workplace floors and basement areas within the planned programme.
Each section will continue to be developed during pre-construction. The Bank can refine, expand, reduce or omit individual sections before instruction, and a section cannot proceed until the Bank issues a formal notice to proceed for that part of the works.
That makes the £133m award different from a conventional single-start main contract. McAlpine has secured the overall main works appointment, but physical delivery will advance section by section as scope and programme are confirmed.
Grade I headquarters faces major infrastructure renewal
Threadneedle Street is the Bank's historic headquarters and a Grade I-listed building. The combination of retained historic fabric, basement accommodation, major workplace areas and ageing building infrastructure places the project at the deeper end of London's refurbishment market.
The Bank's 2026 Climate Transition Plan says major refurbishment at Threadneedle Street is planned between 2026 and 2030. The programme is expected to modernise workspaces and improve energy efficiency through the replacement of outdated core infrastructure.
Heating decarbonisation sits on a different programme. The Bank currently schedules the larger Threadneedle Street heating transition for 2030 to 2037, so the £133m main works award should not be treated as the complete decarbonisation package for the building.
The Bank has previously examined alternatives for replacing gas-fired heating at Threadneedle Street, including heat-pump technologies. Its estate programme is being sequenced around operational requirements, equipment life and investment in the building's existing infrastructure.
McAlpine adds to London heritage refurbishment workload
The Threadneedle Street award adds another major retained-building project to Sir Robert McAlpine's London workload. LCM's review of London's major retrofit contractors identified McAlpine's recent work at 80 Strand and the National Gallery among its evidence for heritage and occupied-building refurbishment capability.
The Bank's procurement also gives the contractor a long programme window. Main works extend to late 2030, with preparatory and pre-construction services feeding into the individual sections before each notice to proceed.
The next delivery milestones will come as the Bank fixes the scope of the first sections and issues the corresponding notices to proceed. The current main works contract is scheduled to conclude on 19 November 2030.
Expert Verification & Authorship
Founder & Author, London Construction Magazine | Construction Testing & Investigation Specialist