London Wall Place Serviced Offices in London City is Committee Approved

The City of London’s planning committee have this week approved the development plans for Hammerson’s London Wall Place scheme. The St Alphage House tower and the podium on London Wall will be knocked down for the 500,000 sq ft, £350 million serviced offices in London City.

Developer Hammerson have this week been granted planning approval from the City of London’s planning and transport committee for their new £350 million London Wall Place development.

Following the committee’s approval of the plans, the scheme will now be put before London Mayor Boris Johnson for final approval in the next two weeks. As part of the project, the St Alphage House tower and the podium on London Wall will be pulled down to make space for the new 500,000 sq ft serviced offices in London City.

According to the development plans, two new office buildings will be built as part of the scheme. The first, 121 London Wall Place, will provide 300,000 sq ft of serviced offices in London City next to Mooorhouse. It will offer large, flexible floor plates and beautiful landscaped gardens to a range of tenants. The second smaller building, 123 London Wall Place, has been designed to offer clients 195,000 sq ft of serviced offices in London City across 16 floors.

In addition to two landmark City office buildings, the London Wall Place development also involves the creation of vast open spaces including new gardens located near London Wall and the St Alphage Church Tower remains. As part of the MAKE-architect designed scheme, Barbican’s famous walkway system will be retained to allow easy access to and from the City though the creation of new bridges.

“There has been overwhelming recognition from City of London members of the scheme’s quality and this is a result of our commitment to constantly evolving the design and challenging traditional preconceptions of both the site and occupier’s needs. This is a prime location, where we could achieve completion in 2014 ready for full occupation in 2015. We expect London Wall Place to become a well-known City landmark,” commented Hammerson’s Martin Jepson.

Although approved by the City’s planning and transport committee, the scheme has yet to win the full backing of the public. Prior to the approval, the committee received more than 130 letters of complaint from Barbican residents who felt the serviced offices in London City were simply too large and overbearing for the local area.

“We are supportive of many aspects of the redevelopment, but we think they’ve just gone too far and the scheme they’ve planned is just too big,” commented Tim Macer from the Barbican Association.