Plans revealed for London’s tallest office block after the Shard

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

South London’s tallest office block after the Shard could be built on the South Bank, alongside two skyscrapers with 433 homes.

Developer Black Pearl Limited wants to construct the triplet of skyscrapers on a mostly empty site on Blackfriars Road.

The centrepiece of the proposals is a 199.28 metre tall 45-storey office tower, which would include a series of sky gardens with views over the River Thames.

Two blocks of skyscraper flats, one 40-storeys high and the other 22-storeys high would sit next to the office block over a three storey podium.

A rear section of the Grade-II listed the Mad Hatter Pub and Hotel would be bulldozed to create a new walkway, dubbed Hatters Yard, to the site from Blackfriars Road.

The alterations would mean the loss of the existing hotel but the pub’s floorspace would double due to it being extended elsewhere.

Of the 433 new homes planned, 104 would be at the cheapest social rents and 56 would be at rents cheaper than the market prices. The remaining 273 homes would be set at market prices.

The social rent and discounted homes would be located in the 22-storey block, known as the Paris Building.

The development would create over 100,000sq metres of new office space but only two per cent of the new workspace would be classed as affordable.

As Southwark council requires that 10 per cent of new office space must be affordable, the developer has offered to make a payment to go towards new affordable offices elsewhere in the borough.

The proposals would also include space for a new training or education centre, as well as a kids’ play area, shops and rooms available to be booked out by community groups and schools.

If built, the proposed 199.28 metre tall skyscraper would be the second tallest office block in South London, behind the 310 metre tall Shard. Overall, it would be South London’s fourth tallest structure, behind the Crystal Palace Transmitter, 215 metres, and just centimetres smaller than the 199.4 metre tall One Nine Elms skyscraper near Vauxhall.

The proposed development on Blackfriars Road is the latest in a line of plans drawn up for the site from a scheme approved in 2018.

Southwark council will make a decision on the application at a later date.

Pictured top: CGI of planned skyscraper development at dusk (Picture: Southwark council planning documents)