Small and medium size businesses, shops and a sports bar have been given notice to quit a building complex in Cleveland Street ahead of a planning application to redevelop the site for a mixed-use development. The developer Dukelease is currently showing outline plans for the complete demolition and redevelopment which will mean a wall where the street artist Banksy painted “If graffiti changed anything…” will be lost.
The plans presented this week show a redeveloped site with shops, offices, a bar and gallery. The design also includes 100 homes in three tower blocks above the commercial units. And a recently closed petrol station could be relocated and reinstated in a narrow mews opposite existing housing at Holcroft Court.
The unusual triangular site surrounded by Cleveland Street, Carburton Street, Clipstone Street and Clipstone Mews was built in the mid-1960s as part of the Holcroft Court development and is next to the BT Tower. The freeholder of the site is Westminster City Council. Duklease acquired the headlease of the site earlier this year after the petrol station closed.
Fitzrovia News understands that the famous Banksy mural on the Clipstone Street wall is to be preserved and relocated. Dukelease say they intend to submit a planning application to Westminster Council later this year.
A local architect criticised the plans saying: “The proposal is out of scale with Cleveland Street and looks more suited to a major thoroughfare.”
Some residents have expressed concern about the location of the petrol station in the narrow Clipstone Mews opposite homes as well as the height and bulk of a proposed ten-storey residential block less than nine metre away from existing homes. The displacement of the many small businesses on the site is also a worry. The Jetlag bar at the north end of the site was the subject of a licence review earlier this year after complaints of noise nuisance.
Fitzrovia has been blighted in recent years by property developers seeking demolition and redevelopment on a number of sites in the neighbourhood causing noise and traffic nuisance. Dukelease has been criticised in the past for demolition of the oldest building on Goodge Street at the end of last year.
Local people are invited to a public exhibition  showing the proposals at the Grange Langham Court Hotel, 31-35 Langham Street, London W1W 6BU. The exhibition will be open at the following times: Wednesday 17 September from 2pm to 7pm; Thursday 18 September from 2pm to 7pm; Friday 19 September from 2pm to 7pm; and Saturday 20 September from 10am to 2pm.
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