Waterloo club for army veterans blasts property company’s 20-storey tower plans to leave it ‘a cold, dark space’

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A veterans’ club has blasted a property investment company’s plans to build a 20-storey office block next to it, claiming the tower will leave their building in darkness.

The Union Jack Club has provided respite for armed forces personnel from its current building in Waterloo since 1975, but claims its future is now threatened by proposals from its neighbour Bourne Capital.

The investment and leisure company has applied to Lambeth council to bulldoze some of its buildings in Waterloo Road to make way for a new tower block.

The Union Jack Club said the plans are too big and would harm the peaceful environment it provides for its 25,000 members.

Hugh Player, chief executive of the Union Jack Club [UJC], said: “The impact of the building will be huge. The planned building will block out the light. We would become a cold, dark space.

“We have 60 rooms on the south side that can be occupied by more than 100 people. The building will have a big impact on these rooms.

“The club is a safe space for people. People come here for respite. It’s a place where no one is going to look at you if you’re missing a leg or an arm. It’s not a hotel. Some people have extended stays here.”

Former Royal Marine, Mr Player, added: “We do not object to a redevelopment of our neighbour’s site, per se, but we are surprised, shocked and deeply alarmed that the scale, height and mass proposed is architecturally incongruous and commercially excessive.”

Bourne Capital’s proposed building will be just 8.5 metres away from the UJC’s site boundary. The club fears this will make it difficult for it to redevelop its site in the future when the current building comes to the end of its life.

The armed forces charity – which was founded in 1904 – also believes the size of the planned tower block would harm views of the nearby Grade-II listed Old Vic Theatre.

Mr Player said: “If the plans go ahead it would be hard to work with the space we have in the future. It all comes down to scale, mass and height. If we were to have a conversation with the developers it would have to be around a smaller building.”

Bourne Capital said it had made significant changes to its original proposals in an attempt to resolve the Union Jack Club’s concerns.

It said: “Bourne Capital has a huge respect for the Union Jack Club [UJC] and its charitable endeavours. We do however feel the UJC’s objection and its current campaign are not reflective of the lengths we have gone to in order to address the club’s concerns.

“The UJC claims that there has been no meaningful engagement by Bourne Capital and that our planning application has no regard to its fundamental concerns.

“We are very surprised by these comments. We have spent more than 12 months working with the UJC and its advisers on a ‘Cumulative Development Study’ in order to address the UJC’s principal concerns, namely the relationship between our proposals and the UJC’s existing buildings, and the safeguarding of the charity’s own substantial redevelopment proposals.

“This engagement led to very significant amendments to Bourne Capital’s original development proposal. The work undertaken by both parties and our respective advisors is clearly documented in detailed presentations and communications that include agreement on certain key development issues.”

Pictured top: Gathering of surviving Victoria Cross and George Cross holders outside the Union Jack Club for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral (Picture: Union Jack Club)