Westminster city council has granted planning permission to a reconfigured version of Robin Partington & Partners’ 42-storey “Paddington Cucumber” tower more than seven years after the scheme originally won outline consent.

The latest incarnation of the project, which is part of the west London neighbourhood’s Merchant Square redevelopment, is externally identical to the earlier scheme but drops the originally-planned hotel element for more homes.

However a sister block that forms part of the same application is completely different to the originally approved scheme for the plot that Partington & Partners – which last year rebranded as “Apt” – designed for the plot to the north of Paddington Basin.

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