Vacated ex-Home Office HQ subject to bid for conversion into flats
By Harrison Galliven, Local Democracy Reporter
The former headquarters of the Home Office in Croydon could soon house hundreds of new residents, as plans have been submitted for the conversion of the two buildings into 628 flats.
The Home Office recently transferred its more than 5,000 employees working at Lunar House and Apollo House to a new site in East Croydon.
The two Brutalist towers at 36 Wellesley Road became a public focal point for the country’s immigration system, and often for protest too, leading to them having a visible security detail at the front entrances. New arrivals into the UK would have to travel there to progress their cases including asylum applications.
As of summer 2024, a new site at 2 Ruskin House is now housing the 5,000 or so employees in what is being called a ‘Government Hub’. This site sits alongside a string of new developments surrounding East Croydon station, including HM Revenue and Customs offices at 1 Ruskin Square.
A plan for conversion of Apollo House and Lunar House was first submitted in 2015 but did not progress. The applicant sought to convert Lunar House into 904 one-bedroom flats, while Apollo House would be converted into either 333 one and two-bedroom flats or 417 one-bedroom units.
Later in 2015, Singaporean investor Ho Bee Land purchased both office blocks in a £99 million deal. As of November 5, 2024 Ho Bee Land has lodged preliminary plans and an environmental impact assessment with the council’s planning department, laying the groundwork for their coming proposals.
The proposals outline a transformation of Lunar House into 420 flats and Apollo House into 208 flats. A full planning application, including more detail on design, is expected to be submitted soon.
These plans are part of a trend of office-to-residential conversions in the capital. Only recently, plans were announced to convert another Croydon landmark, Richard Seifert’s iconic Number One Croydon office building, into 250 flats.
The introduction of Permitted Development rights in 2013 has led to a surge in office-to-residential conversions across the country. These transformations usually do not require full planning permission.
With a recent study by property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton revealing that the East and South East of England is home to an estimated 12.9 million square feet of unused office space, it is expected that this trend of conversions will continue.
Pictured top: Lunar House, which opened in 1970 and is built in the Brutalist style (Picture: LDRS/Harrison Galliven)