Developers wanting to build a 20-storey office block beside the Barbican have watered down their plans after a massive outcry from residents.
More than 1,000 objections have been submitted to the City of London Corporation since the application for the 1 Silk Street site – between Moorgate and Barbican stations - came to light last June.
The original plans were for a block of two towers, each standing 20 storeys above the ground floor, to be built directly opposite the main entrance to the central London arts complex.
The revised scheme, reportedly valued at £450m, would reduce the western section of the office block by three storeys, or more than 10m, meaning it would be three rather than six storeys higher than the building it is designed to replace.
The revised scheme is expected to be published on the City Corporation’s website next week.
But some Barbican residents told The Standard the amended plans were merely a “ruse” and failed to fully address their concerns.
Residents objected to the original scheme because of its size – 63 per cent bigger than at present – and the way it would block daylight from their flats.
The revised scheme would be 55 per cent bigger, according to the developers. It would have 16 storeys plus a ground floor on its western side, and 20 storeys plus a ground floor on its eastern side.
It would “overhang” the pavement on three sides and be 28m from the Barbican estate’s Cromwell Tower and 24m from Speed House.
The Grade II listed Barbican estate is home to thousands of residents and the Barbican’s three triangular towers – Cromwell, Shakespeare and Lauderdale – are landmarks on the London skyline.
Jan-Marc Petroschka, an architect and chair of the Barbican Association, compared the office block planned for 1 Silk Street to “stacked pizza boxes”. He said the amended plans, which emerged on Monday, were merely a “lazy attempt to please”.
Mr Petroschka told The Standard: “It’s welcome that they have taken off some height opposite Cromwell Tower, which will lessen the impact for a number of flats, but they have not done anything for Speed House at all, which is a huge problem as it affects hundreds of bedrooms and studies.”
He added: “Even if you take three floors off the western part of the [proposed] building, it’s still five floors higher than the existing building, due to the increased floor to ceiling height.
“What we really want here is not just a lump but a beautiful building that is crafted out of its context. This [proposed] building is not. It’s as lumpen and joyless as the previous scheme.”
The Barbican estate, with the arts centre, conservatory gardens and City of London School for Girls at its centre, is renowned for its post-war Brutalist design.
It was built from 1962 to deliver high-quality housing for the City of London’s population following the Second World War WWII and designed as a “city within a city”. Its conservatory and gardens are Grade II* listed.
The developers - LaSalle Investment Management, Lipton Rogers Developments, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) – say the modified scheme includes “substantial revisions” that “respond directly to feedback received during the consultation process”.
The proposal is to demolish two buildings that currently occupy the 1 Silk Street site – currently being vacated by the law firm, Linklaters – and replace them with a new block that would be more attractive to commercial tenants.
Gary Moore, head of international accounts, Europe at LaSalle Investment Management, said: “The revised proposals for 1 Silk Street reflect our continued commitment to listening carefully to residents and investing in the City of London’s future.
“While the scheme has evolved in response to feedback, our ambition remains unchanged – to deliver a high-quality, future-focused commercial building that reinforces the City’s position as a globally competitive financial district, whilst strengthening culture and the public experience in the Square Mile.”
Sir Stuart Lipton, founding partner at Lipton Rogers Developments, said: “In listening carefully to feedback received, the revised scheme designed by SOM is more modest in scale, while more ambitious in public benefits.
“It opens itself to the community, enriches the cultural fabric of the Square Mile, and delivers clear improvements for Silk Street and its surroundings.”
Lipton Rogers Developments is the firm best known for 22 Bishopsgate, the City’s tallest skyscraper.
According to the applicants, the amended scheme, which has five per cent less floorspace than the original proposal, “significantly reduces” the loss of daylight in nearby homes.
The terraces that would have overlooked Cromwell Tower have been removed to prevent overlooking and improve privacy, but others have been retained elsewhere in the scheme.
Obscured glass panels have been added to parts of the façade to limit views into nearby properties and provide greater privacy for Barbican residents.
More than 2,200 sq m of public space would be created in Silk Street, including a new “welcoming plaza” at the Barbican art centre’s main entrance.
Historic England objected to the original plans as they “harmed” the view of St Bride’s Church, the “journalists’ church” in Fleet Street, a Grade I-listed building designed by Sir Christopher Wren, as well as of the Barbican estate.
The applicants said the new plans “significantly reduce” the impact on the Barbican estate and St Bride’s Church, but admit the new block could still be seen from the Golden Jubilee bridge (formerly the Hungerford bridge).
Save Britain’s Heritage “strongly objected” to the original scheme – dubbed The Dump by critics - because it believed it failed to comply with national and local policy for preserving the historic and natural environment of the City of London.
The Victorian Society objected due to concerns at the impact the demolition would have on the nearby former Whitbread brewery and its listed Porter Tun Room.
The Barbican Association said it was not objecting to the site being redeveloped but called for a “sensitive and beautiful retrofit”.
In a letter to the City Corporation, it said in relation to the original proposals: “We do not understand why the end result is so large, so out of scale and place, and so damaging to residential amenity. The proposed development will grace neither its immediate surroundings nor the City’s skyline.”
Other residents described the original proposal as “extraordinarily bulky and oppressive”, “intimidating” and an “insanely out of scale monolith”.
The two blocks on the 1 Silk Street site, Milton House and Shire House, were built in 1982 and refurbished in 1996. However, new energy performance standards mean they will soon be effectively unlettable.
Linklaters is moving to a new headquarters at 20 Ropemaker Street this year.
Subject to planning consent, demolition of the 1 Silk Street site is expected to take a year, followed by three and a half years of construction – meaning it could be completed by 2032.
