Plans approved to redevelop London Chest Hospital into flats
Plans were approved to build on the old London Chest Hospital site, despite concerns about height and the preservation of a 400-year-old tree.
Last week on Tuesday 16 July a Tower Hamlets Council committee approved plans from developers Clarion to redevelop the London Chest Hospital on Bonner Road.
The Grade II-listed hospital will be partially demolished and replaced with tower blocks. They will include, 274 homes, 121 of which will be ‘affordable homes.’
Residents of the Parkview Estate launched a petition opposing the development in May, arguing that the buildings, ranging from five to nine stories would block sunlight and dominate the surrounding skyline.
The petition stresses that the residents oppose the scale and not the development itself. As of writing, it has 929 signatures.
Nonetheless, the Council’s strategic development committee has unanimously voted to grant planning permission and listed building consent, meaning the plans will go ahead. Work is expected to begin early next year.
Initial plans to redevelop the site fell through in 2021 when the High Court revoked planning permission from property developer Crest Nicholson. The court found that the plans were likely to lead to the destruction of a 400-year-old black mulberry tree on the site.
The tree is likely to be the oldest surviving tree in London’s East End and even survived a bombing during World War Two. Clarion’s new plans for redevelopment aim not to relocate or destroy the tree, and will instead build a protective shelter around it.
Geoff Juden, Chairman of the East London Garden Society said: ’Expectations are high that the tree will survive, however this will totally depend on how the tree takes to the shock of the building works.’
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