The NLA Tower, the Richard Seifert and Partners-designed “50p Building” that has come to symbolise central Croydon, is to be overlooked by a 28-storey block (another one), after the council lost yet another case at the Planning Inspectorate.
Tight fit: it is perhaps significant that this developers’ CGI of their proposed 28-storey tower of microflats does not manage to include the full height of the building
Wittington Investments want to demolish City Link House, the five-storey office block on Addiscombe Road, and replace it with a residential block of 498 micro-flats – the fourth such development of this kind within a quarter-mile-long stretch opposite East Croydon Station.
The scheme would also include 84 more spacious homes.
Under the developers’ proposals, the micro-flats will include en-suite bathrooms and a kitchenette, but residents share kitchens and communal spaces in the building.
Councillors on the planning committee rejected the plans because it would harm the view of No1 Croydon. Concerns were also expressed about another significant increase in the number of residents in a small area.
The developers took their case to the Inspectorate, where the council’s planning department made a less-than-compelling case for refusal.
“The height and massing would be substantially larger than the height and massing of the NLA Tower and given the proximity to the NLA Tower, it would not appear subservient to the building when viewed in both the immediate context and in views from the north and south of the site and would thus have a negative impact upon its setting,” Croydon’s planners said.
The developers claimed that their 28- and 14-storey towers would somehow “enhance” views of the NLA Tower, which has 24 floors.
Symbolic: built in 1970 by Richard Seifert, No1 Croydon has come to represent the town centre
They claimed that their proposals are “of exemplary design quality and incorporates high quality active frontage”. By that, they mean a cafe on the ground floor. Another one.
The scheme has been designed by Squire and Partners for developers Fifth State and Wittington Investments.
Typically, microflats in other tall developments near East Croydon Station have been built to rent, with nearly £2,000 per month being charged for homes that are barely larger than a modest hotel room.
Which suggests that once this project is completed, if ever fully occupied, it might generate £12million per year in rentals for Wittington Investments.
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