New Covent Garden Market is the largest wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market in the UK. Located in Nine Elms, London, it cover a 57-acre site and is home to around 200 fruit, vegetable and flower companies. The site is pushing ahead with its bold venture to turn the historic wholesale market into the capital’s dominant food hub worth some £200m, to benefit traders, entrepreneurs, local community and food industry at large.

Representing the first stage of the vibrant new food industry campus known as the Food Quarter, the Food Exchange is a £130m development, completed in February 2018, providing a workspace, kitchen space and food culture venue. Spanning three floors and three outdoor roof terraces, it offers 40,000 sq. ft of lettable space to food entrepreneurs, giving them a unique space to create, innovate and collaborate. Now home to many innovative food-related businesses, along with the Covent Garden Market authority (CGMA), the BREEAM Excellent building has won the London & BUILD project Award for Best Commercial Design.

Neil Tomlinson Architects wanted to give the building an industrial look, utilising a functional insulated panel to seal the building envelope. Central Fabrications was able to develop a sinusoidal panel to meet both objectives for this iconic project and following a stringent tender process, we were awarded the contract, having demonstrated our ability to deliver excellent value, efficient project management and meet the client’s design requirements, working closely with them, from concept to handover. The project took three months to complete, finishing in June 2017, and following its successful completion, Central Fabrications was awarded further panel projects.