EG LONDON DEVELOPMENT
N
ot so much Waterloo Sunset as the scene of many false dawns: the tired neighbourhood of 1950s and 1960s buildings around Britain’s busiest station has seen countless redevelopment plans dissolve in recent years.
Once again, Waterloo has two major schemes almost ready to go, offering regeneration of a 10-acre plus area beside the station. The Shell Centre redevelopment (see
box) seems likely to go ahead but its developers have yet to commit to the scheme’s speculative element and, although consent has been granted for an adjacent redevelopment of Elizabeth House, there is no certainty about when – or even if – this will happen. A decision by communities secretary
Eric Pickles in March not to call in the Elizabeth House planning application (see box), praised by CABE but slammed by English Heritage, offered hopes that the Shell Centre would also bypass this hurdle.
Lambeth council is due to decide on
the planning application for the Shell Centre later this month. Although Lambeth has resolved to
approve the Elizabeth House scheme, its developers – the Elizabeth House Partnership, a joint venture between Chelsfield and London & Regional – are seeking prelets before commencing work and have still to finalise legal agreements with the council. None of this lack of development is for want of enthusiasm from Lambeth council, whose supplementary planning guidance for the Waterloo area envisages large-scale regeneration, with several buildings and sites allocated for redevelopment. While in neighbouring Southwark landmark buildings such as the Shard redefine the skyline around London Bridge station, Lambeth’s ambitions to bring new architecture – and employment – have repeatedly failed. The council has granted numerous consents for office developments over the past decade, including earlier proposals for Elizabeth House and the Shell Centre, but few have come to fruition. Examples include York House –
renamed Wellington Place by Delancey and Scottish Widows – which gained planning permission for around 350,000 sq ft of office space in 2008 and even had Ogilvy & Mather virtually signed up as tenants by 2011. The consent, which Lambeth council admits came with “a raft of conditions”, has not been implemented. In 2012, Urbanest, along with
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Delancey and Guys and St Thomas’s
www.estatesgazette.com
SHELL CENTRE SCHEME
What Redevelopment of the 1960s Shell Centre including 500,000 sq ft of offices, 790 residential units and 80,000 sq ft of shops and restaurants. The existing 360 ft Shell tower will be retained and the scheme will contain a further eight buildings, the tallest being 413 ft. Who Developers Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar each spent £150m to acquire a 999-year lease of the site, while the Anglo-Dutch oil company retains the freehold.
11 May 2013
When The planning application is due to be heard by Lambeth council this month. A speculative office phase of 275,000 sq ft is planned but the developers have not committed to a start date. Shell’s 1,700 staff will relocate to Canary Wharf to make way for the works, which the developers hope to complete by 2019. Shell will then occupy the existing Shell tower and 210,000 sq ft of new offices at the site.
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