RECORD £2 BILLION HOUSING PLAN FOR BARRACKS
DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORIC HYDE PARK BASE TAKES A MAJOR STEP FORWARD
PLANS to turn the Household Cavalry’s historic barracks in Hyde Park into a record-breaking £2 billion super-elite neighbourhood have taken a major step forward. Defence chiefs are “pro- gressing” legislation paving the way to sell the home of the mounted regiment charged with guarding the Queen, the Standard has learned.
Senior property figures said the development of Britain’s most valuable military brownfield site would “blow out of the water” the Candy brothers’ lavish One Hyde Park apartment scheme just a
few hundred yards away. One leading developer who is interested in acquiring the 3.5-acre barracks site told the Standard: “It ticks all the boxes.
“The location is amazing and there is the potential to do three or four highrise One Hyde Parks, as there is a tower already there that sets a precedent.”
In another sign of the accelerating pace of progress, officials are holding high-level talks with the property industry next week and hope to launch the sale — codenamed Project Rose — formally by the end of the year.
The Hyde Park Barracks site bordering Kensington and Knightsbridge includes a 450ft frontage to Kensington Road and is estimated to be worth about £500 million. It includes a 300ft tower designed by Sir Basil Spence that was turned down for listing in 2015.
Discussions between the Government’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation, which is handling the sale, and developers started in 2012.
But they have foundered until now on the Ministry of Defence’s insistence that the buyers provide a replacement barracks for the 300 troops from the Life Guards and Blues & Royals housed by the austere Seventies blocks.
One requirement is that the new barracks have to be within 30 minutes’ ride of Horse Guards Parade.
The MoD appointed consultancy GVA last September to help identify potential sites and unblock the log-jam.
Developers are also concerned that the Government may have “missed the boat” after the rapid slow-down in the ultra-prime market following a series of stamp duty increases. Some are now looking at an alternative option of a luxury hotel and serviced apartments.
However, agents said the potential for the scheme was so great that it could single-handedly revitalise the central London luxury residential market.
James Hyman, head of residential agency at Cluttons, said: “If the developers maximise the opportunity to the full they will be able to ask whatever price they wanted, within reason. Not dissimilar to when Candy & Candy launched One Hyde Park.
“Due to the marketability and rarity, this is likely to generate a lot of interest around the world regardless of how the London market is performing and could kick-start an international spending spree across the capital at every level of the market.
“That would bring much-needed renewed confidence back into the London residential market.”
Tim Shaw, head of London development at property agent Carter Jonas, said: “You’d expect a finished scheme on the Hyde Park Barracks site to blow any previous records out of the water. It could mean this enclave of Knightsbridge becomes the most expensive and sought-after neighbourhood in London, perhaps even the world.”
A large-scale residential development may be opposed by residents determined to protect the area’s character.
The Knightsbridge Neighbourhood Forum has laid down a series of criteria in its neighbourhood plan. These are being opposed by the DIO.
They include the preference to keep the barracks in Hyde Park or return the