Southwark councillors gave the go-ahead to a huge set of tower blocks by the Canada Water Dock this week, despite concerns about the overshadowing of nearby flats.
The Canada Water Dockside scheme is made up of 110-metre, 63-metre and 55-metre towers that will serve mainly as office blocks, with some restaurants, shops and community spaces included too, as well as a new public square.
The new buildings will be on a site that the council originally gave planning permission for in 2013 as a largely residential site, including 231 “affordable” homes. Current owners Art-Invest, who bought the site after the council gave the original permission, agreed to pay £27 million instead of building the new homes. That money is earmarked to be spent on building more council homes.
Speaking at the planning meeting on Monday (March 21), Southwark Council planning officers said that the new buildings would cause “noticeable adverse impact on some local residents” – particularly the SCAPE block of student flats currently being built – but added that “certain adverse impacts” can be expected as part of the wider ongoing development of the Canada Water area.
British Land, whose 3,500-home Canada Water masterplan makes them the largest developers in the area, wrote to council planning officers raising concerns about the possible impact of Art-Invest’s scheme on their development. Officers said British Land’s buildings would not be affected.
Southwark Council welcomed the news that its planning committee had approved the development.
Some objectors to the application argued that there was little point building so many new offices in the area, as more people have worked from home since the onset of the pandemic.
But Art-Invest development director Luka Vukotic told the News in June: “It feels like we have seen a paradigm shift in office working where we’re used to coming to an office and sitting at a desk – but actually the future is going to look very different. And a lot of the offices that are only equipped to deal with day to day sitting at your desk will become something that people don’t want any more.”
Building work is likely to start in spring next year, Art-Invest said.