Endurance to fight Friars House hotel plans refusal

Endurance Land and Angelo Gordon have lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate over Southwark Council’s decision to block its plans to redevelop Friars House, 160 Blackfriars Road, SE1, into a 10-storey, 220-room hotel. Planners at Southwark Council recommended the scheme for approval last year but it was refused by the council’s planning committee in October, and in December London’s mayor decided to leave the case with Southwark. A document giving the statement of the case on behalf of Angelo Gordon and Endurance Land lodged on the planning application on Southwark Council’s planning portal reports that the committee refused the application due to the proposed development failing to “mitigate its adverse impacts on the local area”. The committee also expressed concerns over the scheme’s adverse impact on the townscape due to its excessive height, the fact that it would include poor-quality and substandard visitor accommodation due to a lack of natural light and ventilation, and that it was an over-development of a constrained site. In addition, the scheme was refused over concerns that it would lead to an “over-dominance of visitor accommodation in the locality, which would detract from the vitality of the area and harm the local character”. The document also reported that an audio recording of the committee meeting when the planning application was refused included the director of planning at Southwark Council warning planning committee members that “all of those reasons for refusal that have been put forward can be described as relatively weak, and this does open us up – as our legal officers suggested – to a strong risk of the decision being turned over”. The site, located south of Southwark Underground station, is currently occupied by an office block whose tenants include TTG Media and consumer credit reporting agency Experian, as well as Sainsbury’s, Costa Coffee and juice bar Crussh retail outlets at ground level. Angelo Gordon and Endurance Land acquired the building in 2016 for around £62m, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.61%, from UBS Global Asset Management, according to Radius Data Exchange. Angelo Gordon and Endurance Land have been contacted for comment. To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette Photo: © EPR Architects