Great Portland Estates’ revised scheme passes key hurdle despite strong opposition from heritage groups
Southwark council has approved Great Portland Estates’ revised plans for an office scheme next to the Shard after a seven-year planning battle.
Councillors voted to back the Orms-designed St Thomas Yard scheme, previously called New City Court, at a planning committee meeting yesterday evening despite continued objections from heritage groups including Historic England.
The scheme, which will replace a 1980s office building with an 11-storey office block and refurbish a row of grade II-listed Georgian houses, has provoked controversy due to its proximity to a number of heritage assets including the grade II*-listed Guy’s Hospital.
GPE senior development manager James Shipton said the developer was “delighted” to secure approval, adding its vision was to create a “best-in-class workspace that not only meets the needs of today’s businesses but also set new standards in sustainability, design and customer experience”.
Orms director Simon Whittaker said the project would revitalise an under-used site and make “significant improvements to the streetscape and greenery of the local area”.
Southwark’s approval comes after two redesigns of the project, which was originally envisaged as a 37-storey office tower under plans designed by AHMM and submitted in 2018 before it was cut down to 26 storeys.
These plans were thrown out by former communities secretary Michael Gove in 2023 after GPE brought the application to appeal, with the developer appointing Orms to redraw the scheme the following year.
Orms’ team drastically reduced the size of the development and it was recommended for approval by planning officers ahead of a planning committee meeting in July this year.
But the reshaped scheme was met with strong opposition at the July meeting from councillors and heritage groups including Historic England and Southwark council’s own Conservation Area Advisory Group, resulting in a decision on the plans being deferred until October to allow GPE to make further changes to the scheme.
Despite amendments by GPE made since July which sought to reduce the massing of the main office block and its impact on protected views of Guy’s Hospital, both heritage groups upheld their advice to reject the scheme ahead of yesterday evening’s planning committee.
However, Southwark’s planning officers advised councillers to back the scheme, arguing the latest amendments had reduced its impact on neighbouring heritage assets.
The officers’ report also said the proposals would “enhance the character” of the Borough High Street Conservation Area and would “not harm protected views”.
The scheme will retain the and re-use the structural core of the 1980s office building on the site and add five storeys with balconies and landscaped roof terraces, almost doubling the existing floorspace on the site to 190,000sq ft.
Construction is expected to start in summer 2026 and complete in late 2028.
Mace had been working on the original towers plan, which were understood to be worth around £200m, but the new work will go out to tender.
Firms that have been retained for the scheme include project manager Gardiner & Theobald, structural engineer AKT II and QS T&T Alinea.
The team also includes MRG Studio as landscape architect, DP9 on planning, The Townscape Consultancy on heritage, Velocity on transport, GIA on daylight, Ashton Fire as fire engineer and Chapman BDSP as services engineer.
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