Plan with ‘ugly’ office block gets green light
SCHEME WILL INCLUDE SHOPS, GYM AND EALING CLUB VENUE
AN “ugly” 21-storey office block has been approved for Ealing Broadway despite the scheme being slammed as “alien”. It comes after residents raised fears the town centre development will ‘ruin’ Ealing.
The scheme, from developer British Land, also includes new shops, restaurants, cafés and a gym. Some buildings on the site, at 9-42 The Broadway and 1-4 Haven Place, would be knocked down for the development while others would be revamped and a new public courtyard created.
Historic music venue Ealing Club would move to the site under plans which also include a new pedestrian route linking the town centre, Ealing Broadway station, on the Elizabeth Line, and Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre. Ealing Council’s planning committee approved the scheme on April 26, which will now be referred to the Mayor of London for a final decision.
But residents voiced concerns at the meeting, mainly over the size of the tower block. Mr Payne, who has lived in Ealing for more than 50 years, said: “On aesthetic and heritage grounds, the design, I have to say, is ugly and out of character with the area.
“I’m in good company in stating this, Historic England, the government’s heritage advisors, state that the proposal would be wholly alien to the character and appearance of the Ealing town centre.”
He added: “Neither Chiswick nor Richmond have allowed tall buildings to spoil their town centres and neither should Ealing.”
Mr French, another resident, said councillors’ “duty... is to ensure the scheme is good for Ealing, and this one’s not”. He said its “impact on the town centre and Haven Green conservation areas, both of which are at risk, will be ruinous”.
The council received 200 objections to the scheme ahead of the meeting. One objector wrote: “Ealing is becoming overrun with high rises. It’s ruining the character of the place. I moved to Ealing 40 years ago because it didn’t have too many alien high-rise buildings. We should not be allowing buildings higher than 10 stories – we do not have the neighbouring infrastructure to accommodate anything more.”
Another said: “Please stop these ludicrously high tower blocks, you will ruin Ealing. I’m not against development but it should be in keeping with the area. Eight storeys is plenty.”
Ealing Civic Society said: “While we welcome an office-led mixeduse scheme for this site rather than inappropriate residential proposals as have been previously put forward, we have a number of design and heritage-related concerns about the proposals.”
It added: “A high-rise building fails to respond to or complement the character of the predominantly low-rise Victorian and Edwardian architecture of the town centre and its surroundings and would be an alien structure in the skyline.”
Councillors have mixed feelings. Conservative councillor Julian Gallant said there are positives, including revamping an area “which has been run-down for many years” but argued the building would “totally dominate the cityscape”.
Labour councillor Anthony Kelly said: “Overall, I do appreciate the density and the height is something that we’ve not seen in Ealing Broadway but before the Ealing Shopping
Centre was built we hadn’t seen something like the Ealing Shopping Centre, so it’s just a question of progress and it’s been a long, long time since any meaningful development has come in this part of Ealing Broadway.”
Mr Owens, representing the applicant, said it is a “good-looking scheme designed by award-winning architects Stanton Williams”.
He said: “This application seeks to reverse the decline in Ealing’s office space, which will help underpin the health of the town centre for the future. The scale and quality of the new office buildings being proposed are needed to attract major occupiers, but we’ve done this in a way that also respects the local area.
“Yes, some of the new buildings are substantial, and you are going to see them, but simply seeing them does not make them unacceptable. You have rightly identified Ealing town centre as the focus for economic growth so there is going to be change and this site is allocated in your local plan for such redevelopment.”
He said the offices would be “relatively affordable, with rents at less than half those for equivalent space in the West End” while claiming the scheme would raise £4million in extra business rates every year for the council, create more than 2,800 permanent jobs and bring more people into the town centre.
The committee approved the application, with 10 councillors in favour and three against.