Galliard revises Mile End scheme to include gay nightclub
For the second time in two weeks an application is to go before Tower Hamlets Council’s planning committee with the promise of retaining space for a gay nightclub.
On Thursday Galliard’s scheme on Mile End Road, E3, goes before committee, a week after Regal Homes’ plan for a mixed-use development on Hackney Road was rejected.
Galliard was refused planning consent for a 15-storey, 52-unit scheme with no club in February. It centred on the height and massing, with the density said to be an “over-development” of the site.
For the second time in two weeks an application is to go before Tower Hamlets Council’s planning committee with the promise of retaining space for a gay nightclub.
On Thursday Galliard’s scheme on Mile End Road, E3, goes before committee, a week after Regal Homes’ plan for a mixed-use development on Hackney Road was rejected.
Galliard was refused planning consent for a 15-storey, 52-unit scheme with no club in February. It centred on the height and massing, with the density said to be an “over-development” of the site.
There were also concerns about the loss of The Backstreet club, which has been operating from the site since the mid-1980s.
At the time, Galliard expressed a commitment to secure a new off-site premises for The Backstreet and also explained the difficulties in retaining the club due to its “incompatibility with the proposed residential use”.
However, it has revised the design, with a nightclub now planned for the basement, which The Backstreet will occupy.
The scheme has also been downsized to 12 storeys and the number of homes decreased to 46 flats, of which 35% will be affordable.
Meanwhile, Tower Hamlets planning officers had insisted Regal Homes’ Hackney Road scheme would only get the green light if it included an LGBT venue, the first time the sexual orientation of a venue’s customers had been included as a condition of planning approval.
However, the site of the former Joiners Arms pub, which counted Alexander McQueen, Rufus Wainwright and Wolfgang Tillmans among its regulars, failed to get approval amid concerns its plans didn’t go far enough.
Issues around limited opening hours and high refurbishing costs led to campaigners describing the proposal as a “Trojan horse draped in a rainbow flag”.
Regal Homes is expected to amend its scheme, with a spokesperson saying: “We fully acknowledge the council’s decision and look forward to working with them and the LGBTQI+ parties to ensure the ultimate success of this scheme for all.”
The number of LGBT venues in London has fallen by 58% from 125 to 53 since 2006.
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