Iconic buildings can tell the story of a place. They shape how people see their town or city, attract visitors and businesses, and provide spaces where communities can come together.
In this feature...
Curtain House in Shoreditch has been a furniture warehouse, a print works, a factory and a music hall. Today, it’s low-carbon office space for tech businesses. It’s just one of several iconic buildings that have been adapted, rebuilt or repurposed with help from Aviva’s investment activity and sponsorships, alongside Birmingham’s old Typhoo Tea Factory, which is becoming a new home for the BBC, and Grenada’s former TV studios in Manchester – now a key part of the St. John's development and neighbour to Aviva Studios. In Bristol, the Brabazon hangars, former home to Concorde, will once again be filled with noise and energy when it opens as Aviva Arena in 2028. We look at how finding new uses for old buildings can bring jobs and investment to the places around them, and help them to get ready for the future.
Iconic buildings can tell the story of a place. They shape how people see their town or city, attract visitors and businesses, and provide spaces where communities can come together.
As a major long-term investor in the UK, Aviva is helping some of the country’s best-known buildings adapt for the future. By finding new uses for old structures, we’re helping to support wider regeneration, create jobs, attract investment and keep these landmarks contributing value for years to come.
Long connections
Aviva can trace its history back over 350 years, so it’s not surprising to find famous names in our archives. From Balmoral Castle to Tower Bridge, York Minster to Norwich City Football Ground, over the years we’ve insured much-loved landmarks across the nation.
We also appear in other people’s archives too. Our ancestor company, the Hand in Hand, wrote a policy for the new British Museum in 1769. Their collection still has the original document and the plaque that was put on the wall to show they were covered.
Today we’re still helping make sure important places continue to serve the communities around them, but we can contribute beyond just offering insurance. We can also invest on behalf of our customers in projects that improve the places people live and work while aiming to deliver long-term returns.
Adapt to thrive
Just as our business has come a long way since we had our own fire engines, the way people enjoy those buildings has evolved too. The ones that are still iconic today remain so because they continue to meet the needs of the people who use them.
There are different ways to help a place remain relevant. Sometimes, that involves reusing the physical structure for new purposes. Sometimes it means supporting wider regeneration around it. Or it can mean reinventing a place’s role in community life.
Reuse: preserving value while creating modern workplaces
What is a listed building?
A listed building has special architectural or historic significance. Because of its importance, any changes must be carefully managed and approved to help protect its character.
Take for example the Grade II listed Curtain House, in London’s Shoreditch. Built in the 1880s as a furniture-makers warehouse, over the years it became a print workshop, a factory, a music hall and then offices.
Time had taken its toll, however, and the building was inefficient and costly to run. With an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E, it had the lowest rating at which it is legal to let to tenants[1].
In 2021, Aviva Investors bought Curtain House as the first investment of our Climate Transition Real Assets strategy. The goal was to modernise the structure into EPC A-rated workspaces, suited to the technology businesses looking to locate near the Tech City area around Old Street..
An extensive refurbishment aimed to cut the building’s overall energy use to about half that of a typical UK office complex. Replacing gas heating with electric heat pumps, installing solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, and improving insulation means the building is cheaper to run for tenants. And the project avoided around 3,000 tonnes of carbon emissions by saving the existing structure instead of demolishing and putting up something new[1]. Completed in 2025, the transformation has created modern workplaces for businesses making up a powerful growth sector of the UK economy[2].
It’s a similar story with another Aviva Investors project in London, Pegasus Mayfair. The scheme involved the redevelopment and retrofitting of two historic buildings that were originally commissioned by another of our ancestor companies, Norwich Union, in the 1920s.
The project preserved the historic facades of Nuffield House and involved fully redeveloping its neighbour, Pegasus House to bring it more in line with the renowned architect George J. Skipper’s original vision for the site. It has resulted in a mix of residential, office and commercial space in an energy-efficient, modern space without losing the buildings’ character and heritage.
Both projects demonstrate that older buildings can meet modern expectations and that existing, historic assets can still contribute to climate goals.
Regenerate: investing to unlock wider economic activity
Reuse can also be a catalyst for wider regeneration. The old Typhoo Tea Factory in Digbeth is part of Birmingham’s industrial and manufacturing heritage. With funding made by Aviva Investors on behalf of the Lime Property Fund, the Tea Factory is now being transformed into a new base for the BBC, due to open next year[3].
As well as aiming to be the BBC’s most sustainable broadcast centre, the development is part of a wider ambition to develop over 10 acres of land for homes, offices and hospitality space. It will also link the area to the new HS2 railway, the city centre and improve access to the historic canal network[4].
The BBC forecast that its investment in the area will contribute £282 million of economic benefit by 2032[5]. The expectation is that supporting the area’s emergence as a major creative hub will contribute new jobs and encourage further investment in the region.
Manchester’s St John’s district shows the same pattern on an even larger scale. Aviva Investors in this instance was not turning a building into studios, but rather the reverse. The former Granada TV Studios is now home to Soho House members’ club and Mollies Hotel and Diner, one of the centrepieces of the new St. John’s neighbourhood, which is also home to Aviva Studios, one of Europe’s most ambitious cultural venues.
The completion of Mollies comes after Aviva Investors committed £300 million to the new neighbourhood in 2018[6]. Again, it is part of a much wider regeneration programme that will ultimately cover 2 million sq ft of development including places to live, work and socialise, city parks and open public spaces.
The city is already carving out a reputation as a leading media, tech and creative cluster, home to thriving businesses that create jobs in new industries and contributing to the regional and national economy. Our investments support projects that preserve heritage and provide facilities and infrastructure that can enable further growth[7].
Reinvent: how sponsorship gives places a new role in community life
Investment in development projects isn’t the only way to support the future of an iconic place. Long-term partnerships can also help communities and support local growth.
This year Aviva announced a long-term, multi-million pound sponsorship agreement for the new live entertainment venue, the Aviva Arena, due to open in 2028. The arena will convert Bristol’s Brabazon Hangars, birthplace of another icon, the UK’s Concorde supersonic jets, into a state-of-the-art live entertainment venue.
The venue will preserve an important part of Bristol’s story and identity, by reinventing that legacy for new generations to enjoy music, comedy, sport and entertainment. The front trusses have been preserved to maintain the iconic roofline, and the original floor will become the dance floor when Aviva Arena is open to the public.
It will create a new destination for entertainment and culture while giving new life to an important part of Bristol’s heritage.
It is also expected to contribute around £1bn to the regional economy in its first decade and create thousands of jobs. And as the centrepiece of a 400-acre development, Brabazon New Town, it will anchor the regeneration of a whole area with new homes, schools, community facilities, creative workplaces and public space[8].
This forms part of a portfolio of world-class venues that Aviva sponsors including Dublin’s iconic Aviva Stadium and Manchester’s landmark cultural venue, Aviva Studios, collectively welcoming millions of visitors each year.
Ready for the future
A community is more than just bricks and mortar. But the physical environment where people live, work and play matters. The iconic buildings that make our towns and cities uniquely themselves deserve to be preserved.
Through investment that supports the reuse, regeneration and reinvention of existing places, those landmarks can continue to create social and economic value for generations to come and help the UK get ready for the future.
References:
1. Real asset stories: Shoreditch, East London - Aviva Investors [↑]
2. New analysis shows the importance of a booming tech sector to UK economic growth – The Growth Commission [↑]
3. BDP reimagines historic Digbeth Tea Factory as BBC Hub | BDP [↑]
4. Typhoo Wharf [↑]
5. Stoford completes first stage of The Tea Factory transformation for BBC in Birmingham [↑]
6. Investors commit £300m to help Spinningfields developer create new city centre neighbourhood - Manchester Evening News [↑]
7. A city worth investing in - Aviva plc [↑]
8. Bristol’s new 20,000 capacity live entertainment venue to be called ‘Aviva Arena’ - Aviva plc [↑]
