Planning update

Amazon Last Mile Hub application withdrawn

The application to convert part of the London Wall car park into a last mile logistics hub for Amazon was withdrawn last Friday (22^nd July). The Amazon project team stated that “After working closely with the City of London Corporation to develop plans for a more sustainable micromobility delivery hub at the London Wall site, we are now looking together at potential alternative locations. We are committed to exploring opportunities to expand our new e-cargo bike delivery hubs for customer deliveries in London and across the UK.”

This is clearly good news – now we just have to wait to see where the next location for such a facility will be chosen. Hopefully it will be well away from residential premises.

Hotel to replace consented office scheme

You may recall that planning permission for the demolition and redevelopment of the site at 1-12 Long Lane into new offices was granted in July 2021. It now transpires that the owners of the larger part of that site, 1-8 Long Lane (the Pret building and the one next to it) have decided that the pandemic has had a fundamental impact on working practices. In consequence, they feel that demand for traditional office space in the City will decline and are therefore proposing instead to construct a 125-bed high-end hotel on the site. They believe that there is a lack of hotel space in this particular area, an area which is likely to attract an increasing number of visitors given the opening of the Elizabeth Line and its location in the Culture Mile.

The plans are at a very early stage and preliminary designs are expected to be available by late summer. There would then be a consultation period before a formal planning application is lodged possibly late 2022/early 2023. The owners say that they will be looking at the latest City Carbon policies to see how much, if any, of the existing structure can be retained and have reassured that they will stay within the height constraints of the existing approved plans. They want to significantly improve the “pocket park” (the Pret a Manger outside seating area) and re-activate the street front with restaurants/cafes/and retail at ground floor level.

So now we just have to wait to see what the architects come up with………

n.b. the building at 9-12 Long Lane is NOT part of this proposal and it is thought likely that a separate office development application for this site will follow in due course.