Hot on the heels of planning consent being granted for New Regents College, N1, and Downsview School, E5, comes another Hackney Council proposal to densify council-owned land.
Currently in the consultation stage, the Britannia site in Shoreditch, N1. Replacing a leisure centre, Hackney Council proposes full redevelopment to provide a new leisure centre, new secondary school and improvements to a nearby primary school. To make all that viable, between 400 and 480 new homes are also planned to subsidise the leisure and education uses.
As part of the consultation documents Hackney Council stated it receives “no central government funding to build leisure facilities and insufficient funding to build schools to match the quality of those built under the Building Schools for the Future programme”. It also said that to achieve that same quality, the council has to think creatively about how to pay for them. “By building homes ourselves, rather than handing the site to a developer, we can ensure that every penny raised will go towards funding the new leisure centre and school,” it said.
The three residential towers planned for the site are anticipated to be between 18 and 24 storeys. The consultation will close in February, with a decision from the council then expected by April on how to progress the plans.
Other examples where Hackney is further down the line on similar schemes include New Regents College and Downsview School. Both projects already have planning consent and will provide new and improved replacement educational facilities, along with 175 new homes in a 28-storey tower and 90 homes in a 14-storey tower.
The Britannia leisure centre plans are yet to progress to the design stage, so the image above is for illustrative purposes only.
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