Orms told to make further changes to long-delayed office scheme next to Shard

Great Portland Estates has been ordered to make further changes to its long-delayed office scheme next to the Shard after being told a radical redesign by Orms had not been enough to address its heritage impact on surrounding buildings.

The St Thomas Yard scheme, formerly known as New City Court, had been recommended for approval by planning officers ahead of a meeting of Southwark council’s planning committee yesterday evening.

But the meeting resulted in a vote to defer the decision on the application to October to allow GPE to address heritage concerns raised by councillors, with one asking GPE why the developer was still “insisting” on a large building on a site surrounded by heritage assets.

It is the latest setback for a scheme which was first submitted as a 37-storey tower designed by AHMM in 2018 before it was scaled back to 26 storeys in 2021 following concerns over the impact on nearby buildings, which include the grade II*-listed Guy’s Hospital.

GPE took both versions of the scheme to appeal after Southwark council failed to make a planning decision on the applications with former communities secretary Michael Gove throwing out the plans in 2023.

The developer then appointed Orms to redraw the plans, resulting in a smaller 10-storey scheme which was submitted for planning at the end of last year.

This scheme, which would replace a 1980s office block on the site and refurbish a row of grade II-listed Georgian houses, would still be twice the height of existing buildings on the site, which also include the locally listed Keats House.

During the meeting, planning committee vice chair Kath Whittam asked GPE: “You have had two designs rejected, yet you still insist in having a building which is surrounded by smaller buildings, detracting from [their] beauty. Why don’t you learn from those two rejections?”

She added: “This building should nestle between the other buildings. It shouldn’t be the star of the show.”

Committee chair Richard Livingstone had been poised to reject the scheme following a vote in the meeting before opting to defer a decision to October, saying it “would be fair to the applicant have a chance to look at whether there are any changes that can be made to the application”.

Heritage advisor Historic England had strongly criticised the previous AHMM designs, which it said would cause “serious harm” to historic parts of Southwark.

But while the statutory consultee had recognised the reduced height of the newer Orms-designed plans, it said the scheme would “still fail to respond to the character and appearance of the Borough High Street Conservation Area through its overbearing scale, massing and acontextual design.”

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.

Orms and Great Portland Estates have been approached for comment.