Third time lucky as £1bn printworks plan set for green light

The £1bn redevelopment of what was Europe’s largest printworks is set for approval, nine years after plans were first submitted.

Officers at Tower Hamlets council have recommended conditional approval of the residential-led Westferry Printworks scheme, which will occupy a 61,500 square metre site near Canary Wharf in London. A contractor has not yet been appointed, although Mace is acting as development manager for developer Northern & Shell.

Tower Hamlets council will meet later today (28 August) to decide whether to follow the officers’ recommendation and grant the revised scheme permission subject to planning conditions including £652,000 towards construction skills training and 20 per cent local construction labour.

The planning application is the third proposal for the site since 2015.

If approved, the new development will provide 1,358 homes, a secondary school for 1,200 pupils, and 6,200 square metres of commercial space across 13 buildings, ranging from four to 31 storeys. Of the new homes, 379 are designated as affordable – 259 for affordable rent and 120 for intermediate rent. The scheme will also feature 20,800 square metres of public space.

Construction is expected to take seven years in four phases, starting from later this year. Subcontractor Erith was conducting demolition work whenConstruction News visited the site seven years ago.

Westferry Printworks closed in 2011 when its operations moved to Luton.

In one of his last acts as London mayor, Boris Johnson approved an application to build 770 homes across four towers in the area in 2016. An updated application in July 2018 included an additional tower and increased the number of homes to 1,524.

Then-housing minister Robert Jenrick approved the new plans in May 2020, which caused a political storm after it was revealed Northern & Shell had donated £12,000 to the Conservatives weeks after.

Permission was quashed in the High Court after a successful judicial review brought by Tower Hamlets council. The government dismissed a planning appeal in November 2021 that criticised the scheme for poor affordable housing provision and its effect on the nearby Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site and Tower Bridge.

Each building will feature at least two escape stairs and a firefighting shaft, according to consultation documents. Developer Northern & Shell has said it is exploring prefabrication, including unitised facades, bathroom and utility pods and services distribution.

However, consultees have raised ongoing issues with the plans as they stand. The Greater London Authority, a statutory consultee on all major planning applications, said the development does not yet meet the London Plan.

Officers criticised the amount of proposed play space, of which 4,759 square metres is planned against a policy target of 5,538 square metres. However, they accepted that a sports pitch and multi-use games area would be acceptable.