Over a decade ago in September 2014, the initial landowner and build-to-rent developer Essential Living (the applicant) submitted the first proposal known as Theatre Square at 100 Avenue Road for a residential-led highrise in Swiss Cottage which was refused, by the London Borough of Camden.
Objections mostly centered around concerns that the height, bulk, and massing would have an overly negative impact on surrounding conservation areas as well as on grounds of too great a density on the site.
The more contentious part of the application was the 80 meter tower over 24 floors delivering 184 homes to be let predominately at market rents, a new home for The Winch Community Centre and flexible commercial floorspace, and a separate lowrise building that would have contained the homes let at below market rents.
The applicant then appealed to have the scheme called in and determined by the planning inspectorate in early 2015 for the £100 million scheme. The applicant sought to overturn September’s decision, despite some 3,000 people having signed a petition opposing the proposals.
The nine-day hearing, prompted after Camden Council’s planning committee threw out the scheme in September, will hear evidence from developers Essential Living explaining why they believe a Whitehall planning inspector should overturn the Town Hall’s decision.
The protracted planning battle took a turn in February 2016, with the Department for Communities and Local Government granting Essential Living permission to build a 24-storey block of flats in Swiss Cottage, overruling a previous decision to block the project by Camden Council.
The former 1980s building on the site, which was one of the first to be diagnosed with sick building syndrome, was then subsequently demolished to make way for the Theatre Square development.
Fast forward to the summer of 2020, by which point the previous structures on site have been cleared. Work on the redevelopment of the 100 Avenue Road site in Swiss Cottage has been “paused”, with councilors and residents concerned about the future of the half-built project – and the social benefits it was supposed to bring.
This followed a meeting with representatives from the developer told residents and councilors who are part of the scheme’s construction working group that it was to review its plans and could be downing tools for a year or more.
The developer which claimed to be facing an £70 million deficit after its plan to remove all of the affordable housing from the consented high-rise tower block was rejected by the planning inspector. The applicant had appealed against Camden Council’s rejection of its proposal to amend its planning permission for 100 Avenue Road in Swiss Cottage. Essential had argued that rising construction costs caused by Brexit and Covid meant it was facing huge losses if it was forced to include the 36 affordable housing units in the tower.
The Site is vacant and hoarded off following the demolition of the former office building on the Site, and the construction of the basement secured under the Implemented Permission. The Site is within Finchley Road / Swiss Cottage town centre and has a PTAL Rating of 6a (Excellent), and is served by Swiss Cottage Underground Station, Finchley Road Underground Station, and several nearby bus stops.
This culminated in Essential Living selling the beleaguered site to another developer Regal London, which at the time would need to get amendments to the existing permission in line with the latest fire safety requirements such as the need for a second staircase which came into force in 2022 for new buildings above 18 meters.
In addition to the changes to comply with new regulatory requirements, the majority of new homes would be for market sale rather than built for rent. Amendments to the existing scheme also include a reduction in floor-to-floor heights to be reduced from 3.25m to 3m allowing for the addition of 2 storeys without varying the consented height in the tower block.
Thus increasing the number of homes to 237 from the consented 184 within the proposed massing principally but not exclusively all of the above whilst not increasing the heights of the tower was consented via the planning inspectorate in early 2016.
Simulationosuly the number of affordable homes would rise to a total of 70 homes an uplift of 16 from the extant scheme, achieving an increased total of 35% affordable housing by GIA and habitable rooms which would be managed by a housing association.
In terms of cycle parking, the Implemented Permission provided 240 long-stay cycle parking spaces for residential use along with 48 short-stay cycle parking, of which, 66 long-stay spaces were for the Lower block and 174 spaces were for the Tower block. The Proposed Development seeks to retain the cycle parking for the Implemented Permission as a baseline for the implemented 184 residential units. The additional 53 residential units proposed would be provided with cycle parking that accords with the current London Plan standards.
The Extant Permission was approved when both the Camden CIL Charging Schedule (April 2015) and the Mayoral CIL Charging Schedule (April 2012) were in place. Before the commencement of development in December 2017, which was confirmed with a certificate of lawfulness issued by Camden on 8 February 2018, Camden issued a CIL Demand Notice for £4,683,910.43 payable for Camden CIL and £580,444.84 payable for Mayoral CIL.
CIL liabilities were fully paid by Essential Living in five installments, which also accounted for Mandatory Social Housing Relief, granted by Camden. Since this time, the relevant CIL Charging Schedules have been updated and revised.
Design and access proposals were produced by appointed project Cartwright Pickard architects.
