PLP gets go-ahead for City office scheme

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PLP's proposals for 30-33 Minories, seen from the west

Source: PLP

PLP's proposals for 30-33 Minories. Ibex House is to the right.

Source: PLP

Street-level view of PLP's proposals for 30-33 Minories. Ibex House is to the right.

Source: PLP

PLP's proposals to replace St Clare House in Minories. Ibex House, where the practice is based, is to the right

Source: PLP

PLP's proposals to replace St Clare House in Minories

PLP's proposals to replace St Clare House in Minories

Source: PLP

PLP's proposals for 30-33 Minories feature extensive greening

Source: PLP

St Clare House, which was built in the 1950s and includes a 13-storey tower element. Three-storey Writers House can be seen to the rear

Source: PLP

Writers House in the City of London, seen from Haydon Street. St Clare House is in the background

Source: Google Maps

The rear of Writers House

Source: PLP

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City of London planners have approved PLP Architecture’s proposals to redevelop a postwar office building on the Square Mile’s eastern fringe, replacing it with a new 13-storey structure targeting a BREEAM “outstanding” rating.

The practice’s designs for German developer Patrizia will deliver 23,603sq m of new office space at 30-33 Minories, which is next door to PLP’s grade II-listed Ibex House base. The City of London said the scheme would result in a 14,000sq m uplift of office space. Ground-floor uses at the new building will include retail, food and beverage options.

Under the plans, which were approved by members of the City’s Planning Applications Sub-Committee on Friday, the neighbouring Victorian warehouse building Writers House will be refurbished to deliver affordable workspace and a “cultural/community facility”. It will include a display of artefacts from the site, which once housed the 13^th century Abbey of St Clare and was part of the wider eastern Roman cemetery hundreds of years earlier.

Shravan Joshi, who chairs the City’s Planning and Transportation Committee, said PLP’s proposals exemplified the “new generation of holistic office schemes” that the authority was delivering, with public realm improvements and new cultural attractions alongside green workspace.

“We are creating a unique and diverse offer for local workers, residents and visitors, as well as investors, to make the Square Mile to a world-leading leisure destination for all to enjoy,” he said.

PLP partner and chief operating officer Mark Kelly said the practice knew the site “intimately” and was “committed to creating a scheme that will have a meaningful and much-needed positive impact on the local area and community”.

As well as PLP, Patrizia’s project team for Minories includes cost consultant Core5; AKT II as civil, structural and facade engineer; Sweco as fire consultant; heritage consultant Montagu Evans; town-planning consultant DP9; and landscape architect Kim Wilkie & Gillespies.

Mace provided construction advice for the project.

The City of London said the exhibition of artefacts uncovered at the site would be open seven days a week and free to visit.