Press

calls for urgent reforms after M&S ruling highlights gaping holes in national planning system | SAVE Britain’s Heritage | 06.12.24

National planning policy must catch up with legislation and climate science, says charity that brought landmark M&S case to national attention. It’s time to stop incentivising demolition. Read the press release.

Approval for Marks & Spencer to rebuild flagship London store ends three-year planning battle over art deco building | THE guardian | 05.12.24

Marks & Spencer has been given the green light to demolish its flagship Oxford Street store, ending a fierce three-year planning battle over the art deco building. The housing secretary, Angela Rayner, ruled on Thursday that the plans could go ahead. Read the full article.

Divisive, ugly, gloomy: when will the City of London see the light on tall towers? | THE OBSERVER | 26.05.24

The proposed 1 Undershaft skyscraper is meant to help woo workers, but it’ll make the Square Mile worse for everyone. By Rowan Moore.

Falling Skylons and Office Politics - Bastion House, the old Museum of London, and the denial of modern history | grindrod | 26.04.24

Long shadows. By John Grindrod

A wilting wallflower - A once ambitious civic project has devolved into the chaos that is London Wall West | The Critic | 19.04.24

This is the tale of the monstrous proposals of the City of London to build vast and hideous tower blocks on the site of the old Museum of London, which Michael Gove has at least temporarily blocked. By Charles Saumarez Smith

Gove intervenes over Barbican demolition plans | Architects’ Journal | 17.04.24

Communities secretary Michael Gove has put a pause on the City of London’s demolition plans for Bastion House and the former Museum of London by issuing an Article 31 order. Article by Gino Spocchia.

City of London indicates it will recommend approval of controversial London Wall West scheme, days before public consultation is due to end | My London | 05.04.24

Campaigners have called on members to “reject the application for what it is: unfit for purpose, unworkable, damaging to the City's reputation and, most alarming of all, injurious to the future of people and the planet”. Read the full article.

IF WE KEEP BUILDING NEW OFFICES FROM THE GROUND UP, WE WILL MISS OUR CLIMATE GOALS | City a.m. | 27.11.23

Christopher Hayward, Policy Chair of the City of London, writes: “The City Corporation is now moving towards a “retrofit first” approach, where reuse and refurbishment of existing buildings, structure and materials must be given serious consideration in any planning application. The new guidance applies to major developments – those with a greater floorspace uplift than 1,000 sqm – and developments which propose knocking down most of the existing structure.” Read the full article.

Simon Sturgis hits out at London councils over demolitions | Architects’ Journal | 21.06.23

Westminster Council, Camden Council and the City of London are ‘not delivering on good intentions’ when it comes to rapidly cutting embodied carbon and reaching Net Zero, Simon Sturgis has said. By Gino Spocchia. Read the full article.

Rebuild or retrofit: the fight at the heart of architecture | THE TIMES | 06.06.23

One of the key battlegrounds in the campaign to reduce carbon emissions is the construction industry, and one front has opened in the City over the relocation of the Museum of London, Ben Cooke writes. Read the full article.

City opens its door to possibility of Museum of London Retrofit | Architects’ Journal | 21.04.23

The City of London has unexpectedly said it is allowing for the possibility of a potential retrofit of the demolition-threatened Museum of London site. Read the full article here.

The Museum of London: a fundamental clash as the City of London dreams on | THE OBSERVER | 27.11.22

As the museum prepares to leave its 70s home, plans to raze the site and build an office-led new complex have sparked a battle with those who want to repurpose what’s already there. Residents of the Barbican and other objectors say this would be a wasteful and environmentally damaging overdevelopment of the site, contrary to the City’s own policies and proclamations about climate. Read the full article.