Hall McKnight’s toned-down proposals for King’s College London’s Strand campus have won the backing of Westminster planners, three years after a hugely controversial version of the scheme was pulled.

The 2015 scheme would have seen the demolition of three of the four historic buildings next to grade I-listed Somerset House to provide the university with a new academic building and an extension to the 1972 Strand Building delivering an extra 3,000sq m of space. Only the façade of grade II-listed 152-153 The Strand would have been retained.

Although Westminster council approved the earlier plans, then-communities secretary Greg Clark called in the application amid widespread anger from campaigners. King’s subsequently announced the proposals would be dropped, but retained Hall McKnight to work up a new scheme.

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