Trouble brews over London Southbank’s ‘The Slab’ development
Trouble has been brewing over ‘The Slab’, the proposed Southbank development at 72 Upper Ground.
Campaigners have claimed it will overshadow neighbouring post-war architecture and encroach on a riverside conservation area.
The landmark redevelopment of the former ITV studios had been granted planning approval by Lambeth Council in March 2022.
However, the #SaveOurSouthBank campaign, led by the Coin Street Community Group, has objected to the proposal.
Building campaigners at the Twentieth Century Society, known as C20, last week wrote to levelling up secretary Greg Clark, saying the project’s two interconnected towers of 14 and 6 storeys have been estimated to be 225 per cent larger than existing buildings on the site.
The project, designed by Make Architects and developed by Mitsubishi Estate and CO-RE, is targeting a completion date of 2026.
“The Society considers that the proposed development would be an over-development of a site within a sensitive historic environment,” C20 said. “London’s South Bank is home to some of the country’s finest post-war buildings and public spaces, and its heritage significance is recognised in numerous listings and in its designation as a conservation area.”
‘The Slab’, nicknamed by former C20 chairman Sir Simon Jenkins in the Guardian, will overlook the famous OXO Tower, the National Theatre and the IBM building.
Stephen Black, director at CO-RE, said the proposals “will transform a dormant, closed-off site on a popular part of the River Thames into an open and welcoming building that prioritises high-quality workspace and the provision of new arts, cultural and green public spaces.”
Black anticipates the project to create over 4,000 new jobs, as well as granting local creatives access to some 40,000 square feet of “affordable workspace” and studios.
The developers said they are also looking to create new green spaces and 1,300 cycle parking spaces.
Some 40 per cent of the 2.5-acre site will be given full public access.