Developers unveil £900m plan for affordable homes and creative hub in Shoreditch

Future vision: the Bishopsgate Goodsyard site would house workspaces with shops, cafes, restaurants, a hotel and 250 homes
Ruth Bloomfield7 November 2018

Developers today unveiled £900 million plans for a major new creative industries hub, shop and restaurant complex on a site in Shoreditch at the centre of a bitter planning battle.

The designs are a radically scaled-down version of proposals to build 1,350 homes in skyscrapers up to 46 storeys tall on the Bishopsgate Goodsyard site, which lies between Brick Lane and Shoreditch High Street.

Those plans were thrown out by then mayor of London Boris Johnson in 2016 amid fierce protests from residents and conservation groups who claimed the series of high-rises would “kill the soul” of Shoreditch.

Developers Hammerson and Ballymore went back to the drawing board and today unveiled revamped plans for the former railway goods yard, which has lain derelict since a fire in 1964.

The tallest building is now 29 storeys. And with the housing market in the doldrums the number of homes has been reduced to just 250, in mid-rise mansion block-style buildings on Sclater Street. Around a third will be affordable and aimed at first-time buyers priced out of the area.

The site is now envisaged as a business hub for creative industries with 1.4m sq ft of workspace, plus shops, cafes, restaurants, and a hotel. Hammerson estimates that 10,000 jobs will be created at the goods yard.

Meanwhile, the Braithwaite Viaduct, London’s second oldest surviving railway structure dating from 1839, will be renovated and an elevated linear park — modelled on New York’s High Line — will be created above its arches.

“The revised proposals offer a development that brings a more human sense of scale with reduced heights, and greater provision for affordable and creative workspace,” said Nicola Zech-Behrens, senior development manager at Ballymore.

“The amendments … support the area’s reputation as a hub for tech and entrepreneurs. Thanks to smaller retail units, studios and workshops, this part of London will continue to innovate and grow.”

Rupert Wheeler, chairman of the Spitalfields Society and principal of Mackenzie Wheeler architects, said that the plans were moving “in the right direction”. He added: “We didn’t actually mind 1,350 residential units; what we objected to was high-end flats for people who were probably not going to live there.

“One of the things that was particularly offensive was not so much the height of the buildings but the way they were arranged to form a “wall” along Bethnal Green Road casting an enormous shadow over the homes around it. We will have to look closely at how the new proposals are arranged.”

The developers will now consult local residents. (consultation.thegoodsyardlondon.co.uk)

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