The developer working on the former Middlesex Hospital Annex and Strand Union Workhouse site in Fitzrovia is seeking to reduce the amount of social rented housing and is blaming, among other things, the dead London poor for making the project “no longer viable”.
University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Charity has submitted two planning applications to vary the planning permission given by Camden Council and the agreement to provide affordable housing.
In the planning statement consultants acting on behalf of UCLH Charity state that since planning permission was granted in 2019 the development has encountered circumstances “which have led to severe detrimental financial implications”.
Top of the list of problems encountered is the archaeology of the site and the “works to exhume the burials has doubled the length of the contract and more than doubled the original cost estimates. This is due to the clustering of burials on the perimeter of the site”.
The area around the workhouse was used as a parish burial ground between 1780 and 1853.
However, in 2017 a report warned that “the total number of interments made at the site might be between 9,000 and 10,000”.
“There is only one known reference to the discovery of burials during later phases of construction, and it seems unlikely that all human remains have been removed from the site. The discovery of bones, albeit disarticulated, within the site during recent investigations means that the presence of human remains should be anticipated, outside the footprint of the original late 18th century workhouse building,” stated the report.
UCLH Charity is also blaming listed building works, asbestos, changes in building regulations following the Grenfell Fire, and the Covid pandemic.
The applications now before Camden’s planners seek to reduce the social housing from 36 homes to 13; and to increase the apartments for sale on the open market from 10 to 40.
Arguments about social housing on the site have dragged on since before 2004. UCLH and UCLH Charity have consistently sought to reduce the amount of social housing on the site. And Camden’s planning department has in turn let them get away with it.
| 2021/3088/P | Site at 44 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JT | Non-material amendment to alter the development description to remove reference to the number of residential units, of planning permission 2017/0414/P, dated 15/01/2018 (as amended by 2018/1584/P, dated 30/09/2019) (for: Refurbishment / alterations to the Workhouse and North and South Houses and redevelopment of the remainder of the site to provide a mixed-use development comprising residential units and commercial floorspace, external quench pipes to serve basement, a community room, rooftop plant, and associated works, including opening up of Bedford Passage, creation of public open space, landscaping works etc.) | REGISTERED | 24-06-2021 |
| 2021/3087/P | Centre Block 44 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JT | Variation of conditions 2 and 3 (approved plans), 4 (accessible units) and 5 (wheelchair user dwellings) of planning permission 2017/0414/P, dated 15/01/2018 (as amended by 2018/1584/P, dated 30/09/2019) (for: Refurbishment / alterations to the Workhouse and North and South Houses and redevelopment of the remainder of the site to provide a mixed-use development comprising residential units and commercial floorspace, external quench pipes to serve basement, a community room, rooftop plant, and associated works, including opening up of Bedford Passage, creation of public open space, landscaping works etc.), namely to allow a change in housing tenure (reduction in the number of affordable dwellings) | REGISTERED | 24-06-2021 |