25 storey tower for 100 York Road

1 min read

Author: Cyril Richert

tower-view2A scoping exercise last year for a 30 storey tower in 100 York Road has now turned into a more advanced pre-application as the developer organised an exhibition to promote their scheme at the end of January 2016.

The exhibition presented in January shows several building (essentially a tower of 25 storeys and a 6 storey neighbouring block), with a retention of the original Candle factory building. The new development will include 162 new dwellings (1,2 and  3 bedroom appartements), 72 parking space and 18 residential cycle spaces. It will deliver 3,200 sqm of office space.

elevation

According to the developers, a previous exhibition organised in December 2014 presented 3 options. The developers argue that the options “focusing on making the best use of the space available and on integration with surrounding community space [and to] prioritise the layout of the new buildings and their architecture relative to nearby developments” was rejected and new blocks incorporated into the site was much preferred. Therefore the result is that:

tower-view

If you feel flabbergasted by the proposal, have a look at the initial scoping opinion (p.a. 2015/1835), requested for a mixed-use scheme including 200 residential dwellings and erection of new buildings up to 30-storeys in height.

previous-design

And developers will find without any pain all the justification they need thanks to the already approved towers in the close vicinity, that they quote on page 4 of their exhibition documents:

  1. 98 York Road: 17 storey tower
  2. Heliport heights: 4+15=19 storey tower
  3. Homebase: 20 storey building (actually now 21!)
  4. Lombard Road: 28 storey building
  5. 56-66 Gwynne Road: 14storey building
  6. Winstanley & York Road Master plan.
They even compare with the Ram Brewery tower to justify the scheme.
They even compare with the Ram Brewery tower to justify the scheme.

view-from-thames

And – contrary to the Council – they are not ashamed to show some  cumulative impact along the Thames.

It looks like the developers are quoting CJAG in their list (we should have asked for a patent 😉 ).

> Read:Planning in Wandsworth: is the Council out of control?

In any case, this was exactly the subject of our public meeting organised last November. You can see in this article that the cumulative impact of all those developments which the Council is approving was made clear through our presentation. And although we did not have the architects plans for 100 York road at the time of the meeting, we were quite close in our mocking exercise:

Proposals for York area

A planning application will be submitted in Spring 2016.

A few weeks ago I heard that an officer made a comment about Manhattan and how nice it would be to get the same here. Apparently it was not a joke…

Did you like reading this article? Help us write more!

Clapham Junction Insider (formerly known as the CJAG website) has been publishing local news for over 14 years and remains committed to providing information about the local community and engaging in public interest journalism.

Our goal is to feature a wide range of community campaigns and initiatives, local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, and provide assistance to residents.

We have always been dedicated to these endeavours and have no intention of changing. In fact, we would like to expand our efforts further.

Until recently, all the stories, analyses, and reports published have been made possible with the invaluable help of many volunteers. However, it requires a significant amount of time and effort, and we are frustrated that we cannot do more. There are numerous topics we would like to cover, but we require financial resources to provide regular information.

Therefore, we kindly ask our readers to consider offering financial support to sustain these efforts. Any contributions made will help support community and public interest news, as well as the expansion of our coverage in this area.

2 ways of supporting our project

Do you think what we are doing is helping the community and you want to encourage us to do more? We have set up two ways of supporting our project:

  1. Paypal: For one-off contributions, you can just use your bank card. However if you wish to encourage and support us regularly with a small amount, you will need a Paypal account to set up a monthly subscription. Click here to donate.
  2. Patreon: this is a well-known membership platform that connects content creators with supporters. Mainly, it offers financial tools that let supporters subscribe to projects that give creators a predictable income stream as they continue to create content. Click here to subscribe and support us regularly.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

CJI editor and Clapham Junction Action Group co-founder and coordinator since 2008, Cyril has lived in Clapham Junction since 2001.
He is also funder and CEO of Habilis-Digital Ltd, a digital agency creating and managing websites and Internet solutions.