Ever since Alex Eagle established her namesake design and fashion shop in London’s Chelsea in 2014, the creative director and T contributing editor has become known for producing cool, culturally sophisticated spaces where people want to spend time. In 2015, she expanded internationally with her sprawling 30,000-square-foot Store X in Berlin’s Mitte district, and in 2021, she moved into hospitality, overseeing the rejuvenation of Oakley Court, a 118-room hotel in a Victorian mansion near Windsor, England. But in terms of scale, nothing compares to her latest endeavor: the establishment — in partnership with her husband, Mark Wadhwa, a property developer and entrepreneur — of what’s essentially a new central London neighborhood along the north bank of the Thames.
The first piece, unveiled in 2016, was 180 the Strand, a work, event and exhibition space inside a 1970s Brutalist building designed by Frederick Gibberd, a British architect and urban planner. Topped by a Soho House, its nine labyrinthine floors are filled with museum-quality 20th-century furniture from Eagle and Wadhwa’s vast collection. Now, connected to that building by a courtyard garden planted with silver cherry trees and English roses, comes 180 the Thames, a newly built glass-and-Portland stone residential development with 115 apartments. Together the two structures, known as 180 Quarter, cover an entire city block, sloping down from the Strand to the 19th-century Temple underground station and spanning a combined 1 million square feet of interior space — ample room for everything one needs to make “life rich and easier,” says Eagle. “I’m always thinking about how one wants to live. … This place encompasses all the pillars — health, food, hanging out — that feel fundamental.”
That includes a gourmet market, all-day cafe, wine bar and bakery called Corner Shop, decorated with the designer India Mahdavi’s rainbow-bright Afro furniture. There’s also Eagle’s new boutique — with 7,000 square feet of Japanese ceramics, vintage watches, clothing and furniture, as well as a matcha bar and a newsstand — and Lunette, a fine-dining restaurant overseen by Florence Knight, a London chef who last cooked at Sessions Art Club. In addition, the complex has a Japanese-style bathhouse, an indoor swimming pool with views of the Thames, a gym, a Pilates studio and office space for nutritionists and other wellness practitioners.
Having conceived and constructed it all for their ideal lifestyle, the Eagle-Wadhwa family, which includes three young children, are, of course, planning to move in later this year. Enjoying 180’s offerings, however, doesn’t require such a commitment: Visitors can book one of the 15 loft-style apartments reserved for short-term stays or, come 2026, check into the 90-room St. Clement Hotel — the Soho House founder Nick Jones’s first project outside the brand since stepping down as C.E.O. three years ago — where the bath products will be custom scented by the English perfumer Lyn Harris and the panoramic views stretch all the way from Tower Bridge to the Houses of Parliament.
Photo assistant: Rowan Spray
Aimee Farrell, a freelance writer, editor and consultant based in England, reports on London’s visual arts and fashion scenes for T Magazine.
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