Hopkins Architects’ plans to redevelop a corner site on Oxford Street have won the backing of Westminster councillors for a third time after the Victorian Society threatened to challenge the scheme in the High Court.

The plans, created for developer Derwent London, would clear all but the façade of a grade II-listed building by Charles Holden from a 0.28ha site at the intersection with Rathbone Place.

But Hopkins’ eight-storey steel-and-glass design would require the complete demolition of 66 Oxford Street, designed by EK Purchase and completed in 1906, which is recorded as an “unlisted building of merit” in the Hanway Street conservation area, where the scheme is located.

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