Museum Street campaigners continue fight against demolition

Campaigners trying to stop a hugely damaging demolish-and-rebuild of a tower block in Bloomsbury have vowed to continue their fight despite a number of set backs.

Camden Council approved plans by developers Simten and BC Partners to demolish an empty 53m high hotel building, which was used as a Travelodge, and replace it with a 74m high tower, at a planning meeting in November 2023.

Campaign group Save Museum Street (SMS) argued that the building should be refurbished instead of being demolished and even put forward their own plans showing how this could be done.

Camden Council declared a climate emergency in 2019. But in April 2023 concerns were raised that members of Camden’s planning committee were not adequately trained in weighing up the carbon costs of new developments as part of the borough’s response to the climate emergency.

Developer Simten and their architects DSDHA successfully persuaded Camden’s planners that the building, known as Selkirk House, could not be refurbished and that demolition was the only option.

Camden’s decision was later reinforced by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Secretary of State Michael Gove who both refused to overrule Camden, despite appeals made by campaigners.

SMS is now exploring their only remaining option: to seek a judicial review of Camden’s decision on the grounds that the council did not properly consider the damaging environmental impact of demolishing a tower block; and the damaging impact the proposed new building would have on the Bloomsbury Conservation Area and nearby listed buildings.

Kathy Doyle of SMS told the Camden New Journal newspaper: “Despite the disappointment of being turned down for a call-in by the mayor and the secretary of state, when the issues involved could be properly examined in a public inquiry, instead of being brushed under the carpet as at the planning committee meeting, undeterred, we’re going for judicial review, and need to raise funds very rapidly.

“We feel that having run such a good and persuasive campaign for the last three years, we would be letting ourselves down, and letting the Bloomsbury and Covent Garden conservation areas down, if we didn’t exhaust every avenue to get this monstrous development stopped.”

SMS is now fundraising to meet the costs of the initial part of their legal challenge. They have already raised £2,000 and they have a crowd-funder to raise another £8,000 for their fighting fund. With 10 days to go, the campaign has already raised over half of that £8,000 target.

Fundraiser: Donate now to save Museum Street and Historical Bloomsbury.