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Major Soho development gets green light

Katherine GrayLocal Democracy Reporting Service
Press Association An artists impression of a new complex on Soho Square shows red and brown bricked buildings on top of white walled, glass retail units.Press Association
Twentieth Century House will be combined with three other buildings

Plans for a major development of four linked buildings on Soho Square have been approved by Westminster City Council.

The project, which includes the former home of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, will form part of an almost 9,000 square-metre complex featuring new office space, an archway onto Soho Square and retail units.

The scheme, brought by the Royal London UK Real Estate Fund, was approved at a committee meeting on Tuesday, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Alistair Martin, from Simten Developments said the project was "about giving a long, underused part of Soho a sustainable future, one that represents the very best of Soho".

Press Association An artists impression of the new complex, showing a brown-red building with white framed retail units below abd people walking on large white sidewalks.Press Association
An archway would provide pedestrians with a route from Soho Square to Dean Street

An eight-storey tall building will comprise what is now 31-32 Soho Square and 65-66 Frith Street, while two further buildings, 22-25 Dean Street and 10 Chapone Place, will be refurbished.

The area will be expanded by 2,477 m sq, and a new landscaped public court yard will be fitted by Chapone Place.

Residential flats that are clustered in Townsend House, one of the existing buildings, will be incorporated in the new development.

Residents have asked developers for noise reduction glazing to be applied to their rear windows, and for heat pumps to be installed.

The scheme will also provide 150 long-stay cycle spaces, seven of which will be for residents, and an affordable workspace for the community at the Dean Street building.

A new archway entrance on Soho Square has been proposed to form a pedestrian route to Dean Street.

However, local community group and charity Soho Society opposes the archway and has said that it should be protected as a space for "rest and recreation".

Its chairperson Tim Lord said: "The purpose and role of Soho Square is respite.

"Soho Square is a protected square under the London Squares Preservation Act 1931, limited to garden, rest and recreation use."

He also said that the archway would disrupt the symmetry of the green space.

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