What seems like a never-ending blitz by property developers continues with the announcement that another three buildings in Fitzrovia streets are to be demolished if permission is granted.
The Berners-Allsopp Estate has submitted a planning application to Westminster City Council to demolish 41-44 Berners Street and redevelop the site to create a new mixed-use building comprising either retail, restaurant or showroom use on the ground floor and part basement, and office accommodation on the upper floors.
The application is linked to the proposed demolition and redevelopment of another Berners-Allsopp Estate building at nearby 18 Wells Street.
The Berners Street development would be wholly commercial while a mostly residential development would be built in Wells Street.
The application states that the proposed building at Berners Street, designed by architects Buckley Gray Yeoman, would have a scale and form that relates well to that at nearby Fitzroy Place.
However, the nearly complete development at Fitzroy Place is considered by local residents to be of little architectural merit and there will be alarm that an application cites it as something to aspire to. And whatever the merits of any new building may be many local people are fed up of yet more demolition of existing buildings that are anything but derelict.
The planning applications arrive in the same month that Westminster Council approved plans for three buildings also in Berners Street to be demolished and redeveloped. One of the buildings was a neo-Georgian building by architects Robert Angell & Curtis. This latest proposal includes demolishing a similar-styled building designed by the same architects.
Planning application: Demolition of 41-44 Berners Street and erection of a mixed use development comprising basement, ground and first to seventh floor levels.
Planning application: Demolition of the existing building at 18 Wells Street and erection of a building comprising lower ground, ground and first to sixth floor levels.