“It is the unerring ability of Handelsman to identify areas just before they become chic that is the cornerstone of his genius”
-Nick Foulkes
About MLC
It all started with an abandoned Art Deco printworks in an unloved area of town. Clerkenwell was rough and ready. A central London location rich in radical history. It was perfect.
We were told it would never work. Turning old industrial buildings into modern luxury loft apartments was maverick at best and madness to most. We found 23 Londoners who disagreed.
Clerkenwell’s Summers Street Lofts set the tone for an extraordinary journey through London’s most iconic and undervalued locations. From King’s Cross, Soho and Bankside to Marylebone, Shoreditch and Stratford, MLC have been at the forefront of the city’s most successful regeneration projects, helping to define how and where modern-day Londoners live.
Harry Handelsman
Born in Germany, raised in France and Belgium and educated in Canada, it was New York, and the artists he met in Manhattan, that inspired Harry to develop the concept of London loft-living.
Upon moving to the capital, Harry found a property market in need of new ideas but blessed with great buildings. The tired façades of the capital’s old factories and warehouses hid the huge windows and high ceilings he was looking for.
Harry’s eye for scalable beauty and clockwork instinct for a postcode’s potential transformed these derelict structures in unloved locations into some of the most desirable destinations in London.
MLC Culture & Art
In 1987, an independent art collector staged an innovative exhibition in central London. Harry Handelsman’s aim was to liberate art from the traditional confines of the gallery, inviting 16 British artists to display their work at the iconic Lloyds of London building. He attracted sponsorship from the Financial Times, illustrating the scope for art consumption in the capital.
The fusion of art and architecture would become a key motif in the success of Manhattan Loft Corporation – from loft-living’s audacious invitation to design your own living space to the presence of Harry’s personal art collection throughout the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
Harry’s knowledge and passion for the arts has led to associations with a number of insitutions, including board membership at the South London Gallery, Artangel and the Hayward Gallery. His contribution to architecture and design has been recognised with an honorary fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Our Vision
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