Southwark Council’s planning committee unanimously approved plans earlier this month for the scheme on the site of two 1980s office buildings at 22 and 24 Southwark Bridge Road to create an 18-storey building to be run by hotel operator AKO.
The AJ100 practice’s scheme for UK and US developer Latium involves partially demolishing the two buildings, retaining the foundations of both buildings, plus lower ground floors and core of number 22. The project would have an estimated whole-life carbon cost of 14,400 tCO2e.
As well as hotel rooms, the scheme will incorporate four storeys housing a sky bar, gym, spa and lounge.
At street level, BGY’s scheme features a hotel lobby plus a 408m2 ‘state-of-the-art cultural venue’ providing space for local creative workshops. Planning documents say this will be run through a curation partnership with Southwark and south London-based creative organisations such as COLAB Theatre and Bankside Gallery.
The scheme is the second recent attempt at redeveloping the two buildings, which are at the northern end of Southwark Bridge Road, one block south of Southwark Bridge.
Early last year, Orms secured planning consent for an office-led development backed by Landsec on the site. The scheme featured up to 20,000m² office space across 12 storeys. Planning documents for the BGY scheme describe Orms’ proposal as ‘unviable, both in terms of delivery and land ownership’.
Southwark’s planning officers earlier recommended the project for approval and said: ‘In the past 12 months the demand for office floor space in this location has continued to decline.
‘The marketing information submitted with this application demonstrates that the site has been marketed continuously for office use for more than two years (both with and without consent for office redevelopment). There have been no viable offers from office occupiers.’
Latium purchased the site in March and hired BGY to design a scheme for it.
A practice spokesperson said: ‘It’s a big year for residential at BGY. From retrofit and hotels to co-living, student schemes and housing – including some brilliant new affordable homes – we’re building communities across the board.
‘The briefs we love most? The ones that come with a few challenges baked in. There’s something deeply rewarding about taking a difficult site – the kind others might quietly sidestep – and reshaping it through design into something thoughtful, joyful and genuinely one of a kind.’
A timeline for construction is not yet known.