Reach for the sky: the latest Greystar twin towers, at One Lansdowne Road. Fewer than 115 of the 806 flats in the skyscrapers will be ‘affordable’
The “Croydon Dildo” is no more.
New plans for the long-vacant site at One Lansdowne Road – the hole in the ground off the Wellesley Road between Apollo House and the Jury’s Inn Hotel, where the YMCA building once stood – have been approved by Croydon Council’s planning committee.
The approved scheme includes two massive towers, one 47 storeys tall, the other 35 storeys, providing 806 build-to-rent apartments.
After a 5-5 vote of the committee last week, the scheme was only passed because the Tory chair of the committee, Councillor Michael Neal, a stooge of Mayor Jason Perry, voted a second time.
Neal has thus allowed through a scheme which will deliver less than 15% “affordable” housing, when London and local plans call for at least 30% – which would have amounted to about 224 of the proposed homes.
During the committee meeting, one councillor simpered about the project not providing “home-ownership opportunities”. The scheme delivers zero homes at social rent.
The approved scheme replaces a previous plan designed for different owners of the site.
Stooge: planning chair Michael Neal
Previous owners Guildhouse Rosepride had been spitballing ideas for a £500million megascheme since 2011 and had planning permission for 68- and 45-storey skyscrapers, at one stage including a proposal for a glass-bottomed swimming pool in the sky linking between the towers.
The taller tower, when CGI’d, deservedly attracted the nickname of “The Croydon Dildo”.
The Dildo plans were eagerly embraced by then council CEO Jo Negrini, as part of what she called the “Croydon Growth Zone”. The project included a 217-bedroom four-star hotel and 397 residential apartments.
But despite the owners going off to property developer bun-fights in the South of France with Negrini, that’s as far as the scheme ever got.
The Croydon Dildo: an architects’ pipedream which property speculators failed to deliver, despite being embraced by ex-council chief Jo Negrini
Although planning was secured in 2017 and signed off by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the permission lapsed in 2021. Guildhouse sold the plot to Greystar, who have a visibly proven track record as developers of build-to-rent properties, with the Ten Degrees and College Road soaring modular towers providing loads of expensive flats and the wind tunnel effect along George Street.
Greystar appointed architects HTA, the same firm that designed their existing pair of twin towers, for the Lansdowne Road site.
HTA’s 35- and 47-storey towers presented to the council planning committee were damned with faint praise, when one councillor comparing them to the “Dildo”: “Nothing could have been worse than the previously-designed building.”
US-owned Greystar have said previously that they will ensure that the One Lansdowne Road scheme will “create something that reflects market demands, is deliverable and meets the needs of the borough”.
One-bedroom “homes” in the existing Greystar developments in Croydon rent for around £2,000 per month. Do the math, as Greystar’s American execs would no doubt say.
The design will have to be amended (oh, how architects hate being told what to do by mainly amateur planning committee members) to make one of the towers lighter in colour and more reflective of its neighbour.
Site for sore eyes: HTA’s scheme provides a square, for people to sit. Which is nice
Other conditions include a sustainable transport contribution of £1.1million, an off-site play space contribution of £49,500, carbon offsetting and air quality contributions of £703,500 and £80,600 respectively, and an NHS contribution of £130,000.
Whether the scheme will survive scrutiny by the GLA, which is usually quite insistent on the provision of “affordable” and social homes towards dealing with London’s housing crisis, remains to be seen.
The towers will also include some retail and office space. As well as the much-reduced height of the towers, unlike the previous scheme, designed by CZWG architects, there is no third, podium building in this version of the plans.
Entrances to the towers and co-working will be on the ground floor alongside a central courtyard-like space with play areas, planting and places to sit. Which is nice. Just hang on to your hats if the wind gets up…
Read more: Developer digs in to keep planning consent for £500m tower
Read more: Lansdowne Road developer lunching out on Exchange Square
Read more: Greystar looking at possible third tower twins for town centre
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havent the planners and developers done enough to Ruin Croydon already.. no more tower blocks !!!!
This plan simply isn’t good enough, the 5 Councillors who voted for this should hang their heads in shame. I suppose I’ll take some heart that at least the other 5 Councillors voted against this. Hopefully the GLA do their job because we can’t rely on Croydon Council to make any good decisions.
In other news entirely, Michael Neal looks like some kind of Lemony Snicket creation.