{"id":112822,"date":"2025-09-04T01:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/112822\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T01:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:22:11","slug":"dsdhas-controversial-holborn-tower-gets-under-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/112822\/","title":{"rendered":"DSDHA\u2019s controversial Holborn tower gets under way"},"content":{"rendered":"

The proposal, which Camden Council approved<\/a> in November 2023, was the subject of a failed legal challenge<\/a> last September to stop demolition of the 1960s Selkirk House building on the 0.53ha plot and the delivery of a 19-storey scheme.<\/p>\n

Work to clear vacant structures is now under way, project backers Simten and BC Partners said yesterday (2 September). That process involves the demolition of an NCP car park and Selkirk House \u2013 last used as a Travelodge \u2013 and other associated structures.<\/p>\n

DSDHA\u2019s designs were approved nearly two years ago, despite a major campaign against the plans<\/a>, and amended designs<\/a> were submitted in April 2022 to lower the proposed building\u2019s height.<\/p>\n

Heritage groups and experts who opposed the development included Historic England, SAVE Britain\u2019s Heritage,\u00a0 TV presenter and Victorian Society chair Griff Rhys Jones and architect Simon Sturgis, on environmental and heritage-impact grounds.<\/p>\n

Jim Monahan of locally based MBH Architects, who bought the legal challenge to the High Court last year, had meanwhile argued that the council ignored its own policies on conservation because of the 74m-tall building\u2019s impact on the Bloomsbury conservation area. He also criticised Camden\u2019s planning officers for failing to highlight the scheme\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

However, Monahan told the AJ last year that, although the High Court agreed that council officers had failed to draw attention to the northern part of the site falling in the Bloomsbury Conservation area, the court ruled that the committee\u2019s decision was likely to have been the same.<\/p>\n

Last summer, Monahan\u2019s practice unveiled alternative proposals to retrofit Selkirk House in a 22-page document<\/a>, signed by more than two dozen groups. The practice advocates retrofitting the entire building to provide new office space, homes, a rooftop garden and a tourist information point.<\/p>\n

Planning officers at Camden had recommended the workspace-led scheme for approval, concluding in a report to the committee: \u2018The only parts of Selkirk House that could, in principle, be retained (floors 4-13) comprise just 25 per cent of the overall structure (by weight).\u2019<\/p>\n

They added that it would be \u2018difficult and costly\u2019 to retain just this part of the building.<\/p>\n

Camden\u2019s officers said that the retention of the buildings \u2018would require substantial works to bring the building up to modern hotel standards, or to convert to residential, particularly in terms of meeting fire safety standards\u2019, adding that DSDHA\u2019s proposal created \u2018the most efficient use of land\u2019.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the report, officers praised the \u2018high-quality architecture\u2019 of DSDHA\u2019s proposal, which they said would have a positive impact on urban design, with a new \u2018open, publicly accessible, mixed-use ground plane with active ground-floor frontages, newly shaped public spaces and a new route connecting West Central Street and High Holborn\u2019.<\/p>\n

DSDHA also defended its scheme, arguing last year that the 44 homes \u2018represent a doubling of the residential on site\u2019, which will replace \u2018existing, poor-quality homes that have been unoccupied for a number of years\u2019 with \u2018a high proportion of affordable homes [77 per cent of additional homes by floorspace]\u2019.<\/p>\n

The firm added that the scheme was \u2018designed to be sympathetic to the Bloomsbury conservation area\u2019 and \u2018sensitively mixes old and new, restoring the historic fa\u00e7ades and interiors of five listed buildings and returning three of them to their original form of townhouses above shops\u2019.<\/p>\n

The DSDHA scheme is expected to reach practical completion in 2028.<\/p>\n

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