North Kensington Gate
Planning applications submitted by Aurora Developments for two schemes on the eastern side of Scrubs Lane, overlooking St Marys Cemetery are awaiting decision by the OPDC. Many objections have been lodged on the OPDC planning website, especially for the southern scheme with its proposed 22 storey tower at 115-129a Scrubs Lane (see at this link).
RB Kensington and Chelsea have submitted strong objections. The application is due to be considered by Hammersmith and Fulham’s Planning and Development Control Committee of February 8th.
We hope that this committee questions the logic of building at this height and density a decade before public transport accessibility levels in this section of Scrubs Lane increase from their current very low level.
Mitre Yard
Across the road from these proposed schemes, developers City and Docklands are holding a second exhibition of proposals for their site just north of Mitre Bridge. The density of the latest plans is some 374 housing units per hectare, as compared with the 450 proposed by Aurora.
The public exhibition will be at the City Mission Church, 2 Scrubs Lane on Wednesday 25 January between 2.00pm and 8.oopm.
2 Scrubs Lane
The third new development in the pipeline for Scrubs Lane involves demolishing the existing City Mission church and nursery at 2 Scrubs Lane (corner of Harrow Road) and replacing it with a new residential tower.
The developers are Fruition Properties, and the architects are Stiff and Trevillion. A first briefing session for local people was held in December, but no drawings are available yet. The new building will provide space for the church and nursery at ground floor level, with some 70 housing units above. Building height is likely to be 18-20 storeys, with a density of 450-500 housing units per hectare.
This site at the northern end of Scrubs Lane has Willesden Junction in walking distance and hence better public transport access than at Mitre Bridge. But this density exceeds the maximum in the London Plan Density Matrix, even for the most ‘central’ locations with the highest PTAL levels.
If these schemes set the bar for building height, at what the OPDC define as a ‘sensitive edge’ of new Old Oak, what is likely to happen at the centre of the regeneration area, around the HS2 station? Predictions of 40-60 storey buildings are looking all the more likely, unless Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London takes a tougher line on building height than his Mayoral predecessor.