Located at a crossroads in central Slough, the Herschel Street development sits between two main roads, a neighbouring church, and a multi-storey car park. The project was designed with strong urban presence, featuring a brick façade paired with Sapphire balconies finished in a contrasting RAL 7016 tone. The initial goal was to deliver at speed—without compromising on energy efficiency or usability.
The tight site boundary and proximity to adjacent buildings presented logistical and structural challenges. With limited access and façade alignment restrictions, a standard GlideOn™ arm-based balcony solution would have introduced inefficiencies. To respond to this, Sapphire developed an optimised system tailored to the building’s constraints and the client’s
performance aspirations.
Instead of using traditional balcony arms, Sapphire introduced a clip-on bracket system incorporating tension tie rods. This innovative approach triangulated the loads, dramatically reducing the forces transferred back to the slab. As a result, fewer thermal penetrations were needed, and less metal was required overall—lowering both the thermal bridging impact and
embodied carbon footprint.
Balconies featured edge-drained soffits aligned to BS 8579:2020, discharging water to the front edge to avoid run-off against the façade.
Decking was laid perpendicular to the building, optimised for door thresholds and façade junctions. The aluminium extrusion profile of the decking was used structurally to span thresholds cleanly, enabling level access without the need for additional supports—meeting accessibility requirements in a highly efficient way.
Sapphire makes the balcony journey simple by making it unique to you. We ask you three simple questions to define your key aspirations, crucial constraints and finally how we could streamline your project by innovation, design, experience and more.
Overview Positioned prominently on Edgware Road in Marylebone, West End Gate by the Berkeley Group combines refined architecture with…
