Developers ditch plan to turn British Transport Police HQ into flats
Saturday, 22nd February 2014
Published: 22 February, 2014
By PAVAN AMARA
DEVELOPERS have ditched plans to turn the Camden Town headquarters of British Transport Police into flats.
The Shirley House building in Camden Road was in line to be converted to 54 new flats, but Deauville Securities Limited, the company behind the proposal, has said it has abandoned the idea.
A planning application was withdrawn on Friday and Deauville has said it will not be submitting a new one.
“Camden Council are saying ‘no’ to all permitted approval applications [a new fast-track system for offices-into-flats conversions], and we know that so we withdrew,” a spokesman said.
“We didn’t see the point in taking it any further. I don’t know exactly what the owners’ intentions are, but we know there is a demand for housing in the area.” The spokesman added that the tower was “pretty much perfect” for residential use.
Robert Burns, a partner at State Architects, which redeveloped the building in 2002, said: “We didn’t know who would be moving in, we assumed it would be a multi-office, multi-tenanted space.
“Then BTP moved in and moved their operation from Tavistock Square. It was a lucky tenancy because very few tenancies are underwritten by the Treasury. BTP’s tenancy guarantees rent from a large organisation in Camden for a space of 40,000 square feet.
“But there is a break clause that allows them every few years the option to leave, so we need a plan if the building is vacated. We need to think ahead with these things. Once it was submitted we realised it was hard to get it approved.”
Camden Town and Primrose Hill Labour councillor Lazzaro Pietragnoli said he opposed fast-track policies brought in by the government to speed up applications where offices would be turned into homes, especially in areas where developers might be seduced by the amount of money they could make from housing in north London’s notoriously expensive marketplace.
“It is great news that this application has been withdrawn,” he said. “The council has fought against this new policy and tried to seek exemption for some areas of the borough, but we have been unsuccessful in both.
“We cannot let developers get away with building expensive flats while not listening to the community’s concerns and the need to protect vital business space.”
