ANOTHER TOWER OVER SHOREDITCH?
We’re urging all to oppose the latest grossly oversized tower in the middle of Shoreditch. Developers want to build the Highgate Tower – a 106m, 30+ storey glass alien – on the Chariots sauna/Majestic wine site on Shoreditch High Street (application HERE).
The proposal for a comically big hotel and office tower, next door to two storey buildings and in the middle of low-rise offices and homes, will cast a shadow over much of the Shoreditch Triangle (image HERE) and dominate the area like a goliath striding across the land. The developer’s opportunism is based on the realisation of the monstrous Goodsyard proposals. And as usual, the CGI images deliberately minimise the full scale.
The development is so over-sized that the application ignores its Shoreditch Triangle context and has to say the “scheme will complement the tall buildings to the south of the site on the City fringe, which include the mooted development on Bishopsgate Goodsyard”..
The SCA’s Planning Committee will publish a full recommendation. However if you’d like to object now click HERE (or e-mail planning@hackney.gov.uk). Suggested text is below. OBJECTIONS NEED TO BE SUBMITTED IMMEDIATELY. The formal deadline is 6 August 2015 (although Hackney confirmed late objections will be accepted).
Please submit an objection today to help ensure a vibrant, diverse future for Shoreditch, not more towering luxury hotels. And please pass this on/share in every way you can. Follow us on Twitter at @shoreditchcomm, and get people to sign up for our email list. Let us know how we’re doing and contact us any time at sca@shoreditchcommunity.com.
Inevitably the City will creep towards Shoreditch. This proposal lands on Shoreditch like the house on the Wicked Witch of the East. Maybe that’s the idea.
Sincerely,
The Shoreditch Community Association
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BELOW IS SAMPLE OBJECTION LANGUAGE. PLEASE USE YOUR OWN LANGUAGE. Individual responses carry more weight. For example consider writing about the direct impact on you. Be careful to say you are objecting, and include your postal address.
To: Hackney Planning
Re: Application 2015/2403, 201 – 207 Shoreditch High Street, Hackney, London, E1 6LG
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I write to object to the planning application for the Highgate development. My objections are rooted in the position that a 106m tower is a monstrous over-development incompatible with this neighbourhood. More specifically, I object on the following bases:
1. The height and massing of the proposals need to be significantly reduced to not overwhelm the site and adjacent heritage assets and conservation areas, nor blight adjacent streets and homes in shadow and darkness. The buildings should integrate with existing heights and landmark buildings such as the Tea Building.
2. The major community benefit – the mooted public spaces – is a red herring. I do not support occasional access to office space – as the price of the shadow from a 30 storey tower.
3. There are 10 hotels being built within a 10 minute walk of this site. This neighbourhood does not need another luxury hotel. This project does little to solve immediate neighbourhood problems, like truly affordable creative workspace and housing.
4. The site is in an area of significant heritage assets and surrounded by conservation areas, yet the proposed design is better suited to Canary Wharf or Hong Kong than Shoreditch and Spitalfields. The applications require a significant rethink and dramatic improvements.
Ultimately, the proposals represent the worst type of exploitative development, shaped by short-term economics and lacking a long-term vision for Shoreditch. Overbuilding of the Shoreditch Triangle will waste an precious asset that can’t be recovered.
If this application will be going to the Planning Sub-Committee I would like to be advised of the date. I do not consent to the release of personally identifiable information.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[POSTAL ADDRESS INCLUDING POST CODE]