Milliners Yard

Milliners Yard is a purpose-built, 11-storey residential development for the build-to-rent (BTR) market from Columbia Threadneedle Investments. Comprised of 258 modern apartments, the scheme, on London Road in Liverpool, sits at the heart of the city’s historic Fabric District. The area was once a bustling centre for millinery and textile warehouses and is now undergoing major regeneration, with the ambition to become a vibrant new cultural quarter. Milliners Yard will play a key role in the revival of this iconic district, bridging its rich industrial past with industrial living.

Design Approach and Scope of Works
Award-winning interior design studio Jasper Sanders + Partners has been involved with Milliners Yard since 2022, having been appointed by Columbia Threadneedle Investments to shape the project’s interior architecture within a building by delivery architects Brock Carmichael. Drawing inspiration from the Fabric District’s heritage, the studio developed a design concept that pays homage to this connection, which not only influenced the narrative but played a central role in the naming and brand identity of the scheme, developed in collaboration with Leeds-based branding agency Society Studios.

Jasper Sanders + Partners was responsible for designing Milliners Yard’s premium ground-floor residents’ lounge, alongside all public and linking spaces, including the fitness suite, communal areas, and apartment circulation corridors. The procurement and fit-out of the one- and two-bedroom apartments was led by operator Allsop, whilst Jasper Sanders + Partners focused on designing a cohesive and holistic experience through the building. The studio’s sensitive approach to key circulation routes ensures a seamless and intuitive journey for residents.

From the project’s inception, Jasper Sanders + Partners Creative Director Rebecca Finney drew on her personal memories of the area, which informed both the interior language and key details within the scheme.

“As a child growing up in the North West, I often visited Liverpool with my Nan, exploring the many department stores in the city. I vividly remember the bold red signage of TJ Hughes and its distinctive egg-crate ceilings - true hallmarks of nineties retail design. That ceiling detail has been reinterpreted throughout the amenity as a subtle nod to gridded textile structures, and in doing so there is a subliminal connection to the adjacent building interiors, with the TJ Hughes building – now being refurbished and restored - visible through the ground floor glazed façade, creating a tactile link between memory, place, and design.”

The ground-floor amenity has been designed to elevate the residential living experience and offers a distinctive identity, tailored to a modern lifestyle in the heart of this iconic city. The Milliners Yard amenity is modest in scale at 3,220 sq ft, but offers a high degree of activation and includes an entrance arrival and concierge area, a quiet pod, a coffee bar used by residents and the management team alike, and a variety of settings catering to a broad range of functions from breakfast to evening cocktails. According to studio Founder, Jasper Sanders, the design aimed to accommodate a variety of everyday activities including ‘waiting, working, lounging and perching’, creating a versatile amenity that reflects the rhythm of modern urban life.

“The design approach merges the district’s storied past with a sophisticated, contemporary aesthetic and seeks to strike a perfect balance between comfort, style, and functionality” Rebecca Finney, Creative Director of Jasper Sanders + Partners explained, adding that the design ambition was to “create a dynamic and purposeful environment, composed of carefully curated settings that flow through interconnected zones’”.

The palette adopts a refined, monochromatic aesthetic, centred around a desaturated dark red hue as a deliberate nod to the adjacent TJ Hughes department store and the wider architectural language of the Fabric District. Warm, rich tones are used throughout the interior to reflect the area’s materiality. This design approach not only roots the development firmly within its urban context but establishes a seamless visual and thematic connection to the surrounding façades, many of which are clearly framed and celebrated through views from the residents’ lounge.

Design Walk-through
The arrival space sets the tone for the scheme, introducing two Farrow & Ball paint colours used throughout – London Clay and Drop Cloth. The flooring is a deep burgundy Mosa tile with a subtle surface texture from The Global Collection, which is used throughout the ground floor amenity, with a paler grout by Kerkakoll to underline the scheme’s prevailing grid pattern. Use of grids includes not only the flooring tiling but the off-grey ceiling and, in some instances, the lighting - or the choice of fabrics. Smaller, carpeted areas all feature the brown Tessera Teviot carpet tile by Forbo.

The reception desk, located immediately to the left on entrance into the residents’ lounge, is a modular desk system by Isomi in smooth concrete. An angled book and magazine display shelf sits to the left, whilst a cream Mosa tile with a contrasting dark grout is repeated in a grid pattern on the back wall. A recessed light fitting sits above the space as a single iteration of the grid motif, with the same fitting used again for the quiet pod area later in the space.

A central coffee bar (in an Egger laminate) anchors the residents’ lounge, with an assortment of zones set around it for socialising, collaboration, and relaxing, defining its periphery. Opposite reception is a lounge setting featuring a generously-curved ‘Core Sofa’ and seat from the same range by Sancal, with cushions in Kvadrat’s Fuse fabric, arranged around a Hitch Mylius coffee table with a Foresso tabletop in Ivory Oak. Full-height, dressed shelving to one side in a muted brown Valcromat blends with both the tiles and Farrow & Ball paintwork, with the scheme’s minimal, tonal palette combining to create an overall monochromatic effect. The pendant light here – spherical to offset the dominant grid – is the HAY Nelson Ball Bubble, whilst the voiles to the rear are in a Kvadrat fabric.

A further voile is utilised in the sofa setting to the rear of the amenity, where a long, curved Track Sofa by Artifort features inset, circular drinks-rest mini-tables, with a circular Track Footstool continuing the use of the shape. Both the sofa and footstool are upholstered in Re-wool by Kvadrat. A quiet study or pod follows with a Baux wood-wool wall panel both playing off the grid concept, whilst ensuring good acoustic absorption. These more secluded, tranquil zones offer a calm retreat for focused work or relaxation, with the overall spatial planning designed to encourage organic social interaction and foster a sense of community within the building.

In collaboration with branding agency Society Studios, Jasper Sanders + Partners developed the conceptual framework for the graphic language throughout the building. Extending across wayfinding, signage, environmental graphics, and branded moments of punctuation, this visual identity incorporates linear lines as central motifs, evoking the notion of weaving. These elements reinforce a sense of flow and continuity within the interiors, creating an intuitive and connected experience which is enriched with visual appeal and complements the interior palette.

The glazing running alongside the lounge areas, for example, features a bespoke manifestation of short rhythmic vertical lines of varying widths, which were added individually, with the scheme’s main buttonhole cross-stitch icon repeated across the top. This icon, conceived of by the Jasper Sanders + Partners team and further developed by Society Studios, has also been extended by operator Allsop for use across a number of brand extension items, from phone covers and tote bags to coffee cups.

Two dramatic features run through the length of the remaining space and act as its spine. One is a banquette in a vertical grain timber laminate by Egger. The banquette features high-quality vegan leather seat pads in garnet from the Ultraleather range by Ultrafabrics, often used for luxury automobiles because of its softness and durability, combined with a Kvadrat Fuse fabric back panel in a fine red and white stripe. Small worktables are from the Mater Waste edition in an off-white, made from a combination of recycled plastics and coffee or wood waste. Freestanding chairs are the Café Chair – Johansson 64 by Frederica.

The second major feature is the snaking, curved light from UR-EKA that runs the whole length of the banquette. In pronounced contrast to the scheme’s strict geometries and grids, the light is a fluid ‘loose thread’, made of two separate 12m lengths. The curvature of the fitting was carefully curated on site to create a dynamic form that snakes and twists, offering a striking visual feature within the space.

A set of double doors, featuring Sembla pull handles by Allgoods, with a deep red central Ultrafabrics grip, leads out into a corridor, where the fitness suite opposite adopts a more minimalist approach. While visually connected to the overall scheme, its tonal palette is inverted, giving the space a distinct identity while maintaining overall unity, creating a continuous visual and tactile journey throughout the scheme.

“We are delighted with the outcome of Milliners Yard”, said Jasper Sanders, Founder and Director of Jasper Sanders + Partners. “The scheme is a vibrant and distinctive addition to Liverpool’s residential landscape, with its success a testament to the strength of our collaboration with Society Studios and our ongoing partnership with Allsop, both instrumental in helping shape a cohesive and impactful interior that reflects the identity and ambition of this development in an iconic district of Liverpool.”