McAslan finally breaks Cromwell Road jinx and wins planning approval

John McAslan Architects’ proposal to redevelop a jinxed site near Earl’s Court has been given the go-ahead by London’s Deputy MayorThe 100 Cromwell Road site had seemed cursed after a string of architects over the past decade had proposals rejected to develop the derelict land beside a Tesco car park.But deputy mayor for planning, regeneration and skills Jules Pipe has now given the go-ahead for the housing and leisure-centre scheme. It follows an increase in the number of homes and the proportion of affordable housing.McAslan’s design for investment firm Meyer Bergman and development manager Londonewcastle was rejected in May 2019 by Kensington and Chelsea Council’s planning committee as ‘excessively tall’. However, the new approved scheme is even taller – up from 22 storeys to 29 storeys.Two months after the council turned down the application, London mayor Sadiq Khan called in the application to subject it to further scrutiny. Since then, City Hall planners have worked with the developer to increase the number of homes overall, as well as the amount of affordable housing.The redevelopment will now provide 462 new homes and 40 per cent affordable housing – up from 427 homes and 35 per cent affordable when the application was called in. Kensington and Chelsea Council has endorsed the revised scheme.Councillors raised concerns over the quality of the proposed housing and the scale of the development, which they argued would ‘overshadow’ residents in the neighbouring Warren House. An officers’ report recommending refusal described the development as comprising a ‘range of excessively tall and over-scaled buildings that serve to dominate the immediate context’.Under the approved plans, some of the existing buildings on the site will be demolished to make way for eight new buildings, to include a public leisure centre, gym and pool, along with commercial and retail premises and new public spaces.The site has a chequered planning history. John McAslan Architects is the fourth architect to draw up plans for it, with its plans replacing Benson + Forsyth Architects’ competition-winning scheme for Spenhill Developments, approved in 2017.Benson + Forsyth was selected following an architectural competition, held in 2009, and judged by representatives from the council and government design watchdog CABE.John McAslan was also on the shortlist that time, along with Peter Barber, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, David Chipperfield and Denton Corker Marshall. However, the scheme was abandoned following the sale of the site to Meyer Bergman, which has since criticised the designs as ‘outdated’ and including ‘complicated buildings that were difficult to build’.Benson + Forsyth itself replaced Bolles + Wilson, which had designed a scheme for Brookfield Multiplex that was later withdrawn. The AJ reported at the time that the developer had come under pressure from the local authority to change its high-rise designs.Another 27-storey scheme designed by Woods Bagot for housebuilder Persimmon Homes was turned down by the council in 2007.