The owner of a Norfolk modelling agency has transformed a dilapidated building in Norwich into one of the area's coolest new offices - but she says there's "no way" she would have bought it if she had known about the work involved.
Last year, modelling agency Sandra Reynolds relocated from Bacon House on St George’s Street to Westwick Street in the Norwich Lanes.
The building had previously been part of Cookes piano shop and before that, The Drum public house, and the firm's managing director, Tessa Dewing, says she knew it well - at least from the outside.
But when she finally got a chance to view it in person she says it was love at first sight.
“The minute I walked into 23 Westwick Street, I knew we had found our forever home,” she says.
The firm had been in its original office in Bacon House since it was founded in 1975, and has grown to become one of the longest-running family-owned model agencies in the country.
It provides the creative industry with models, influencers, actors and children for photographic and TV campaigns for some of the world’s best brands and in 2013, it established a sister-brand called Norfolk Production.
This later rebranded to East Coast Locations, which now provides location services to some of the UK’s biggest fashion and lifestyle brands, from Next, Joules and Boden to Denby, Radley and Parker Knoll, as well as local companies like Virgin Wines, Hopkins Homes and Cotswold Company.
In other words, the business needed more space.
Tessa says their wishlist for a new office was considerable. She wanted a period building that was self-contained and had a large, open-plan space for housing the teams’ enormous booking desk. At Westwick Street, they found it.
“I had been driving past this four-storey building for years,” Tessa says. “It always had a beautiful grand piano in the window and [I] had thought many times how perfect the building would be for us.
“We almost missed out due to it being a few square feet smaller than my Rightmove search criteria size of 2,500 sq ft. It had not appeared on my alerts.
“Luckily, someone told me about it and I immediately contacted the agent, Brown&Co, who told me they were not showing anyone else around as the sealed bids were due in the next day and they had already received considerable interest.”
But Tessa was undeterred, she says, and managed to persuade the agents to meet her there and show her around. “I just loved it,” she says.
At the time, the ground floor was uninhabitable. It had a tin roof over the top of what used to be a yard, but Tessa says it was the “perfect” space for the team’s booking room.
“I knew there would be major works to get this floor right, including steel work to open up the space and a new roof, but I thought the upstairs rooms would just require cosmetic renovations.
“I had to get my bid in the following day and did this, not thinking we would get it as there were a lot of interested developers. When the agent called the following week, I was expecting to be told we hadn’t been successful and literally cried and jumped around the office when I heard we had.”
But, as it turned out, the building needed far more work than Tessa anticipated. “If I had done any due diligence there is no way I would have bought this building,” she admits now. “I didn’t have the time to have it surveyed and was lucky enough to be a cash buyer, so [I] had to make a snap decision.”
When the electrician first came to survey the property after her purchase, Tessa says she told him she thought the electricity on the top three floors was “all good” and that it was just the ground floor that needed wiring.
“We ended up having to have the entire four floors of the building completely rewired, including emergency lighting, fire alarms, new heating and air conditioning and hard and wireless wiring for all our IT equipment,” Tessa says.
“It didn’t stop there. The entire building also required re-plumbing and every day for around four months I almost wanted to cry when I went in. It looked worse and worse every day and was like my vision was going backwards.”
Visiting now, though, you wouldn’t know it. When Tessa shows me around, I’m amazed at how light and bright it is, blending contemporary finishes – like its pink neon sign – with period details.
The completed office is arranged over four floors, which are connected by wooden stairs, and includes an in-house photographic studio. There are also several spacious meeting rooms and comfortable but stylish break-out areas, which are all mixed in with the building’s original period features and include cast-iron feature fireplaces, ceiling roses and wooden floors and many of which were only uncovered during the recent renovations.
The employee bathrooms have been partly constructed out of reclaimed panels from Norwich Castle, the kitchen is beautifully fitted with Shaker-style units and a butler sink and there’s even a double bed in one of the break-out rooms.
Walking around, the space feels less like an office and more like a home.
Employees are allowed, if not encouraged, to bring their dogs to work, and the rooms have been beautifully finished with what feels like an interior designer’s eye. There’s personalised art work on the walls, a mural of employees past and present, and a huge central co-working space made out of re-claimed items.
The space has all the charm and character of a period home but the productivity and functionality of a modern office - and despite its quiet interiors, huge windows remind you how close you are to the hustle and bustle of the Norwich Lanes.
To find out more, visit the website at sandrareynolds.co.uk
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