Sir Robert McAlpine has been selected for the £133 million main works contract to refurbish the Bank of England’s Threadneedle Street headquarters in the City of London, ahead of Bovis and Overbury. The four-year programme tests how a listed, secure estate can be modernised while the Bank keeps working in it.

Sir Robert McAlpine is a family-owned contractor headquartered in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, and was founded in 1869. For the year to 31 October 2025 it reported pre-tax profit of £15.7 million on turnover of £945.7 million, with cash of £141.1 million and a committed order book of £1.3 billion.

The procurement began about seven months ago with an estimated value of £142 million, and four tenders were received, with three assessed in the final stage. The £133 million award excludes VAT and rises to £159.6 million including it, and sits about £8.7 million below the tender estimate.

The scope covers replacement of core building infrastructure, refurbishment of workplace floors and ground-floor areas, auditorium upgrades and basement works. Some parts of the estate have not been renewed since 1942, and the Bank has warned that unknown conditions may emerge once work starts.

The Threadneedle Street site has been home to the Bank since 1732, and the programme is the centrepiece of its wider Location Strategy to consolidate and modernise its accommodation.

The structural driver is the Bank’s sectional contract structure, under which each package is instructed separately after pre-construction development, giving the Bank control of scope while the estate stays in use.

The Bank retains the right to expand, reduce or omit packages, so the final scope instructed can differ from the headline value. The contract also covers preparatory works, preconstruction services and site preliminaries.

Formal signing is scheduled for late November 2026, and the initial term runs until November 2030 with an option to extend by a further year.

Separate notices cover an £8 million enabling works contract and two £5 million frameworks for mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and building fabric works.

For the sector, the Bank of England award shows major occupied-building refurbishments being procured in sections so that clients can adjust scope as hidden conditions emerge.

Source: BD&C / Scottish Construction Now / Construction Enquirer / Construction News / Construction Magazine UK