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19 October 2023
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Lambeth Council has given Buckley Gray Yeoman planning permission for a 20-storey office building in Waterloo, central London, including a four-storey podium designed by MATT Architecture
The council’s planning committee approved the scheme for Bourne Capital and Grandseal and Connect Properties on Tuesday (17 October) with six backing the proposal and one against.
More than 2,500 objections were submitted ahead of the committee date while there were only 27 letters in support. Many objectors described the plans as an ‘unsympathetic’ to the surroundings, namely Waterloo station and the Old Vic theatre opposite, and argued that the proposed office space was unneeded.
The plans will require the demolition of four properties in Waterloo Road and Cornwall Road, making way for a 74m-tall tower with 23,900m2 floor area holding new ground-floor retail and offices.
MATT Architecture, meanwhile, will refurbish Mercury House, a 70-year-old, four-storey building which will serve as a podium to its 20-storey neighbour.
Mercury House would be ‘cleaned up, rationalised and made visually appealing’, according to MATT, which plans to replace the buildings’ windows and add faience and living walls to the façade, as well as painting parts of the original brick wall grey.
The development will house 25,400m2 of office space, 707m2 of ‘flexible’ space, and 3,260m2 of shopping retail, food and drink uses. This will be alongside landscaping, public realm works and associated infrastructure.
The new tower, meanwhile, will have a dark metal frame, glazing and blue-green faience at its base while its middle section will have glazed spandrels in white metal framing. The building will have a two-storey crown with a green steel truss.
As part of the application, Buckley Gray Yeoman will provide a recording space for local musicians and young people, known as Ronnies Studios, and backed by the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.
The Soho-based venue spoke in support of the application at committee, which ended with an advisory on the planning permission that the council would like to see ‘world music’ played in the studios.
Buckley Gray Yeoman said in planning documents that its building would be operationally net zero carbon and the first building in the UK to feature ‘solar-skin’ with photovoltaic panels integrated into its façade system.
The buildings to be demolished are a modern three-storey building at 99-101 Waterloo Road which currently has a Sainsbury’s and offices above, 103-107 Waterloo Road, a part three-storey 1950s and part four-storey Edwardian brick building, 124 Cornwall Road, a three-storey late Victorian workshop and 126 Cornwall Road is a three-storey 1920s building constructed primarily from yellow brick.
Mercury House is a four-storey block dating from the 1950s with restaurants and retail on the ground floor and offices above.
The tower would sit by Capital Tower and the Union Jack Club, two 1970s towers featuring brick cores and glazed floor plates. The former is an office, while the latter is a club for armed forces members.
The plans proved particularly unpopular with the Union Jack Club with many of the club’s 65,000 members among those who lodged objections with Lambeth Council.
Speaking about his element of the development, MATT Architecture director Matthew White said: ‘[Our] retrofit will provide below market rent affordable workspace for the creative industries in a fabulous location right next to Waterloo Station,
‘The upgrades to the elevations massively enhance their environmental performance, alongside improving the liveliness and accessibility of Emma Cons Gardens’ public space facing The Old Vic. Retrofit Rolls On!’
Existing site view:
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TagsBuckleyGrayYeoman demolition MATT Architecture Office Tower Waterloo
Whilst Mercury House doesn’t offer much visually, the buildings on Cornwall Road are worth keeping as too is 109(?) Waterloo Road. I understand the reasons for the overall principle of the building but i think at least some facade retention would have been an improvement. I am also concerned about the pizza gaff on the GF of Mercury House as I do like it there.
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