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Hackney approves Rocket's 39 storey City Road tower


The London Borough of Hackney's planning committee has resolved to grant planning permission for a mixed use redevelopment of Crown House at 145 City Road near the Old Street roundabout in London's EC1.

Under the plans by Rocket Investments Ltd, Crown House will be demolished and a 39 storey residential tower will be built to comprise 302 flats. The scheme will also have a 10 storey office building as well as restaurants, cafes and a kiosk.

The Council's planning officers said in their report (53-page / 356KB PDF) to the committee that the development site's location in a cluster of tall buildings supports the Council's tall buildings strategy. The strategy states that "the creation of new clusters of tall buildings is widely accepted as the most positive means of introducing tall buildings".

The report said that the uplift in office floorspace the development would provide was "strongly supported" by both London Plan policy and by the Council's Local Development Framework policy. It said that the flexible format of the development, which will suit a "range of potential occupiers" responds positively to the need of the 'tech-city' cluster.

Although Rocket had proposed to provide 39 intermediate affordable homes on the site, the report said it had been determined that more affordable homes could be delivered if they were provided off-site. Rocket is working with Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association to build 97 affordable homes at other sites within the Borough, which will bring the total proportion of affordable homes to over 24%.

Work on the site is expected to start in the spring 2014.

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