Almost 1,000 sign petition calling on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to overturn plans for 20-storey office block in Brixton
By Tom Hussey
A petition calling on the Mayor of London to overturn approved plans for a controversial 20-storey office tower in Brixton has received nearly 1,000 signatures.
The proposed Hondo Tower, to be built over Electric Avenue, would be 20-storeys high, contain less than one per cent community space and have no affordable homes, according to plans submitted to Lambeth council in April.
Town hall planners approved the tower in November, despite 7,000 community objections asking them to reject it and a social media campaign plea by Skunk Anansie singer Skin.
Campaigners have also been backed by the country’s biggest authority on 19th Century architecture, the Victorian Society.
Hiba Ahmad, from the campaign group opposing the tower, Save Nour, said: “This is not about skylines for us – this is about people having a say in what gets built in their own home.
“Brixton has so far escaped the fate of Hackney and other areas where global corporations have crowded out living, breathing communities.
“Sadiq Khan must intervene and respect the local opposition.”
The mayor has the power to overrule the local planning authority if a project could have a significant impact on London’s development strategy – the London Plan – if it would impact more than one borough, or if there are planning reasons for intervention.
He would then have two weeks to decide whether to intervene or allow the controversial tower to go ahead.
If built, campaigners say the office tower would break from Lambeth’s own local plan prohibiting tall buildings in the historically significant low-rise area.
The tower is being backed by US hedge fund Angelo Gordon and property firm AG Hondo BV.
A major concern of campaigners is the development could be turned from offices into residential.
Lambeth council planning officer Robert O’Sullivan said: “We’ve had a very robust legal overview of the wording of the condition and we are confident that that would remove the ability at any stage in the future to use permitted development rights to change to residential.”
The property developer behind the tower, Taylor McWilliams, an international DJ and socialite from Texas, became the subject of a viral community campaign earlier this year after he tried to evict grocery store, Nour Cash and Carry, during the pandemic.
A spokeswoman for the developers of the tower, Hondo Enterprises, said: “This development will provide a new landmark building that will deliver significant economic, cultural and social benefits for central Brixton.”
Olivia Stockdale, conservation advisor for the Victorian Society said, ‘This area of Brixton has avoided the intensive development which has blighted many of London’s historic urban centres. It therefore retains its character as a predominantly Victorian town centre. The plans to construct a building of 20-storeys next to this Conservation Area demonstrates a total failure to understand and respond to the context of the area. Whilst buildings of this height may be appropriate elsewhere in London, this is clearly not a location where this applies. The proposed would overshadow the surrounding buildings, including the historic Electric Avenue which, when built in the 1880s, was the first market street lit by electric lights.”
Joe O’Donnell, Victorian Society director, said ‘This is an opportunity to respond to what is wanted by the local community. If a huge office tower block was ever really needed or viable in Brixton, it’s commercial future seems now seems doubtful as it is unclear whether London will ever return to previous levels of office demand in a post COVID-19 world of home working. We have sent our objection to the Mayor to inform his decision.”
Click here to see the petition.
Pictured top: An artist’s impression of the new Hondo Tower block
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Office blocks are so last century. Coronavirus has changed working life for good, and there will soon be a glut of commercial office property on the market that no one will rent or buy because work has shifted to people’s homes. Why should employers fork out for extortionate rents and rates when their employees can just as easily use their own equipment, their own electricity, lighting, heating etc in their own homes – at zero cost to the employer? Commercial logic will kill the raison d”etre of office blocks like this stunningly ugly and inappropriate tower.
If Hondo wants to do something useful and profitable, it should find some brownfield land and build decent accommodation – purpose-built for home working.