China’s new embassy in London has been refused planning permission from Tower Hamlets Council following a two-and-a-half hour debate over the controversial scheme.
In a meeting on 1 December, Tower Hamlets’ strategic development committee voted unanimously to ignore planning officers’ recommendation and reject plans to redevelop Royal Mint Court, EC3, citing safety and security concerns as well as its impact on heritage assets and a tourist destination.
The proposals received more than 50 objections. The level of objections was great enough to mean the chair of the committee gave speakers additional time to make their arguments.
Objectors to the scheme noted that it lies in a conservation area, includes listed buildings and lacked room for the protests likely to be held outside the embassy. Local residents claimed to have been left out of the consultation, despite the applicant claiming to have engaged more than 1,600 individuals.
Councillor Kamrul Hussain said the embassy’s new location would attract “large crowds” and lead to an “over-congested” area around the Tower of London that could bring the borough to a “standstill”. The risk of a terrorist attack on the embassy damaging nearby heritage assets also had to be taken into account, he added. The committee also acknowledged the effect of the development on multiple heritage assets.
The former home to the Royal Mint, Royal Mint court spans 5.4 acres and is located next to the Tower of London. The new 700,000 sq ft development would have been one of the largest overseas diplomatic bases in the world and has been valued at up to £750m.
Plans designed by David Chipperfield Architects would have seen the Grade II listed Johnson Smirke Building substantially refurbished and serve as the embassy’s primary 54,000 sq ft office, in a move from its current home in Marylebone.
The five-storey building at the heart of the site originally served as five apartments for the officers of the Royal Mint in 1811. Minting ceased at the building in 1975 before it was redeveloped in 1986 and became home to Barclays Bank’s executive board in 1988. Planning documents described the currently vacant building as “unfit for modern office use”.
As part of the broader scheme, the Seaman’s Registry building, which has a Grade II listed facade, would also be refurbished. Once completed it would serve as additional offices with 87,000 sq ft of workspace.
Additional housing would be built on the site for embassy staff in the adjacent Dexter House. The building would have been stripped down to its core and redeveloped into a 331,000 sq ft, eight-storey housing block.
Murray House would also be converted into an 88,600 sq ft “cultural exchange”. Both built in 1987, Dexter House and Murray House have been used for offices since they were completed.
Delancey and LRC Group sold the site to China in 2018, in a £255m deal brokered by CBRE. China submitted plans for the plot in mid-June 2021, after a public consultation on pre-application proposals.
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