City Hall has approved the 18-storey Shoreditch Works tower on the Shoreditch fringe, overruling Hackney planning officers who branded the scheme “incompatible and obtrusive”.
Deputy mayor Jules Pipe gave the Shoreditch Works development the green light at a public hearing on 7 October, deciding the application on behalf of Mayor Sadiq Khan after it was called in to City Hall.
The ruling clears the way for one of the biggest mixed-use projects proposed for the area in years. Developer Linea Properties plans 78 homes — 35 per cent of them affordable — alongside roughly 65,000 sqm of offices, 4,080 sqm of shops and 770 sqm of community space.
The site is bounded by Curtain Road, Worship Street, Scrutton Street and Holywell Row, a short walk from Shoreditch High Street station and the edge of the Square Mile. The designs are by KPF, the international architecture practice behind a string of London towers.
Hackney’s own planners had urged refusal, arguing that the height and bulk of the tower would jar with the surrounding streets and intrude on views across the borough. Mr Pipe disagreed, concluding that the delivery of new homes, workspace and jobs outweighed the harm to the area’s character.
A mayoral call-in
The decision is the latest use of City Hall’s power to take over planning applications judged to be strategically important for London. Under the capital’s two-tier system, the Mayor can “call in” major schemes and determine them himself — a route most often taken when a borough refuses or stalls a development offering significant numbers of homes or jobs.
Once called in, the application is decided at a public hearing chaired by the deputy mayor for planning, with the borough, the developer and objectors all given a say. The Mayor’s decision is final, although it can still be challenged in the courts.
Housing pressure
The approval comes as boroughs across the capital face intense pressure to accelerate housebuilding. Some councils have overhauled their housing operations to unblock stalled schemes — Wandsworth, for example, has reshaped its housing directorate in a bid to speed up delivery.
At 35 per cent, the affordable housing offer falls short of the 50 per cent benchmark the Mayor normally seeks, but that target applies chiefly to public land. On private sites, City Hall accepts the maximum viable level, and the viability evidence for Shoreditch Works was judged to support the 35 per cent figure. The tenure mix will be locked in through the section 106 agreement.
Similar debates over affordable quotas have surrounded other large schemes, including housing plans at Cressy Place in Tower Hamlets, where the balance between viability and affordability has proved equally contentious.
Offices on the City fringe
The 65,000 sqm of office space reflects the enduring pull of the City fringe for tech, media and creative firms, many of which have clustered around Shoreditch over the past decade. The retail and community floorspace is designed to keep the street level active, with shops and publicly accessible space lining the surrounding streets.
KPF — Kohn Pedersen Fox — is one of the world’s best-known designers of tall buildings, with a London portfolio spanning the City’s towers. Its appointment signals the developer’s ambition to make Shoreditch Works a landmark for the area.
Divided reaction
Reaction in Hackney has been split. Backers say the scheme will bring investment, jobs and much-needed homes to a district that has changed beyond recognition in twenty years. Critics warn the tower will set a precedent, opening the door to further tall buildings in streets long defined by low-rise warehouses and Victorian terraces.
The borough has been under the microscope this year on several fronts, from development battles to a high-profile crackdown on fly-tipping — a sign of a council trying to assert control over rapid change.
Construction dates have yet to be announced. Linea Properties must first discharge planning conditions and finalise the section 106 agreement before work can start on site.
Source: Made in Shoreditch
