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The skyscrapers are coming! Alongside One Undershaft, The Slab and 55 Bishopsgate, London is slated to get a whole load of new towers by 2030. And another one just has been announced. Hill House, an ambitious 18-storey office block near Fleet Street, is in the works.
On Wednesday (April 11), the City of London Corporation planning committee approved plans submitted by property developers Landsec to build a new office block at 1 Little New Street, designed by Apt architects.
However, heritage concerns have been raised over the new block just off Fleet Street, with warnings it would be ‘overbearing’ to nearby Grade-I listed churches.
Landsec wants to demolish the brutalist 1970s office block that currently stands on the site, replacing it with a brand new 18-storey tower with 57,000 square metres of office space. It will also boast a home for the Shoe Lane Library, plus a bar, gym and rooftop for community events.
City planners said that the Hill House proposals would ‘contribute to the continued resurgence of the Fleet Street area, providing a unique design with cascading stepped green landscaped terraces’.
But Westminster Council, Historic England and the Twentieth Century Society are among the groups that don’t want Hill House to be built. The council said the new structure would be ‘overbearing’ on the Grade I-listed churches of St Mary Le Strange and St Clement Danes, both located on The Strand. The Twentieth Century Society opposed the proposals because it doesn't want the existing 1970s building to be knocked down, while Historic England said the size would have a ‘harmful impact’ on a number of heritage assets.
Looks like Hill House’s opponents will have to just deal with it, because the building has been approved. Deputy chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, Graham Packham, said: ‘The Hill House scheme is a fantastic example of the new holistic office schemes that the City Corporation are delivering sustainably, across the Square Mile: Inclusive, green and respectful of valued community assets, whilst providing public realm improvements for local residents and visitors.’
Here’s what Hill House could look like.
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