Wendover Investments and joint venture Kylun have been granted planning approval on appeal for their £400m Vauxhall Island mixed-used scheme at Nine Elms which includes 712,695 sq ft of office space and 291 flats in two curved elliptical towers – 42 and 32 storeys high – overlooking the River Thames near Vauxhall Bridge in London.
The scheme was the subject of a recovered appeal decided by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles after Lambeth Council failed to make a decision in the prescribed period. One of the issues was the impact of the proposals on the nearby Westminster World Heritage Site (WHS).
Designed by Squire and Partners, the development includes shops, restaurants, a digital cinema, a hotel with sky bar open to the public, dental surgery, children’s play space and both car and cycle parking.
The site lies within the Greater London Authority’s Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, the last remaining major development area in central London, which is being transformed into a new district with 16,000 new homes, up to 25,000 new jobs and extensive new transport infrastructure.
The inspector who held the public inquiry earlier this year recommended that the outline planning application should be allowed.
The minister’s decision letter agreed with the inspector that the proposals would ‘deliver buildings and a layout of high architectural quality’ and that their effect on the character and special interest of the WHS ‘would be acceptable’.
The two towers are set to join the new St George’s Wharf Tower and form an addition to the Vauxhall Cluster, a group of tall buildings which is the basis of a major new commercial and residential district for the capital that has been compared to Canary Wharf.
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