‘The battle for the tower is won’: Inside the three-year fight to block Hondo Tower in Brixton

A three-year battle to prevent a 20-storey office block from being built in the heart of Brixton has been won by the local community.

Last night it was revealed that Taylor McWilliams, a multi-millionaire DJ from Texas, USA, who is the landlord of Brixton Market, had withdrawn an application to build the controversial office block in Pope’s Road.

The news came just four days before a postponed showdown at City Hall was set to take place where the future of the plans would be discussed by campaigners and the developers.

Mr McWilliams’s property company Hondo Enterprises said delays to the project had made it difficult for the building to be delivered, in a letter addressed to City Hall by its agent DP9 on Monday.

The withdrawal means that the dubbed “Hondo Tower” cannot be built without developers submitting a new application and beginning the whole process again.

“The battle for the tower is won,” said Danai Nardi, 50, an activist for the Save Nour campaign – setup in the wake of an attempted eviction from Brixton Market by McWilliams during the pandemic. Save Nour created the Fight the Tower campaign group when plans for Hondo Tower were submitted.

“We are ecstatic,” said Ms Nardi, who lives near Windrush Square in Brixton. “This last week we’ve been preparing statements and speeches for the hearing. We’ve been under enormous pressure. Then we got the news.

“We’re just people, we don’t have influence or money but we have knowledge of the system. We’re extremely proud.”

Lambeth council initially waved through the development at a planning application committee in December 2020, despite Hondo’s own public consultation which found that 73 per cent of local people opposed the scheme.

A further petition launched against the tower raised almost 8,000 objections, as well as opposition from Historic England, the Victorian Society, the Brixton Society, and MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, Helen Hayes.

Among the objections was the height of the tower – which would have made it by far the tallest building in the area and impacted daylight for nearby residents – as well as plans to make it an office block, in an area that has seen rapid gentrification while suffering a housing crisis.

Sonia Freire Trigo, 47, a lecturer in planning at University College London happens to live next door to where the tower was planned to be built. She said she knew it was an “absolute disaster” the moment she saw the plans.

“I’m a planner and I knew I had to get involved,” she said. “I care what happens in Brixton but also from a technical point of view I could see this was the wrong proposal.

“It was against the policy for the Local Plan and completely out of character for the surrounding area. It would have been like an invasive plant eating up the ecosystem of Brixton. The nightmare is over.”

Fight the Tower said it received help from all over the Brixton community, with its strength in the variety of people able to bring different skills to the group.

The campaigners hosted weekly stalls collecting hundreds of handwritten objections on postcards, which were hand delivered to the Greater London Authority (GLA) in time for the original hearing in 2022.

The group maintained pressure on Lambeth council then the GLA over three years, all the while learning about planning laws, keeping Brixton Market traders informed, and garnering public affection through an effective social media campaign.

Hiba Ahmed, 29, a Fight the Tower campaigner who lives in Oval, said the group’s victory “shows what’s possible” for other developments across London.

“It’s very symbolic,” she said. “Hopefully this is something people can draw inspiration from to work together. We’ve been told the system is rigged against us but there is power in people coming together and fighting for self-interest.”

Campaigners have said they plan to “hold Lambeth council to account” for allowing Hondo to get this far with its application. It is unclear at this stage what they are planning but they have confirmed they will attempt to bring an alternative scheme for the space.

A Lambeth council spokesman said: “The planning application was originally approved by Lambeth council’s planning committee in November 2020, following full public consultation and two committee meetings that heard representations from residents and businesses both for and against the development.

“The council has now been notified by the Greater London Authority that this planning application has been withdrawn and will not proceed to a public representation hearing.”

Hondo Enterprises has been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: Fight The Tower poster outside Brixton station (Picture: Fight the Tower)