Developer appoints new project team on stalled 24-storey Camden tower

Cartwright Pickard has replaced Grid Architects on long-delayed plans to build a 24-storey block of flats in Camden.

The 100 Avenue Road site next to Swiss Cottage tube station was purchased by residential developer Regal earlier this year from former owner Essential Living.

Regal has now replaced much of the project team on the stalled job, which was originally approved nine years ago but was subsequently beset by an array of planning and construction delays.

The scheme’s former landscape architect Camlins has been replaced by Turkington Martin, transport consultant Vectos has been replaced by Caneparo Associates and planning consultant Turley has moved over to the heritage brief, with the planning role handed to Montagu Evans.

Robert Bird has also been appointed as structural engineer and Whitecode has been named as the project’s energy and MEP engineer.

Regal now intends to boost the scheme’s number of homes from the consented 184 to 236 and sell them on the market instead of Essential’s original build-to-rent approach in order to make the scheme viable.

Other planned changes include reducing ceiling heights from 3.25m to 3m, adding an additional story to a proposed lower-rise block on the site, altering internal layouts and adding a second staircase into the tower to comply with new fire safety requirements.

Regal has also instructed new lead architect Cartwright Pickard to design a series of amendments to the scheme’s facade including new materials and changes to elevations.

The existing 1980s building on the 0.38ha site was demolished in 2019 and a basement was completed but construction later stalled due to soaring costs and a dispute with the council over affordable housing. The site, located at a key transport hub, is currently vacant and hoarded.

Essential Living had unsuccessfully appealed to the planning inspectorate to reduce the amount of affordable housing in the scheme, citing viability concerns in a difficult operating environment.

The original approval included 28 affordable rented units, eight intermediate homes and 18 flats for discounted market rent for 15 years. Essential Living proposed reduced this to18 flats for discounted market rent in “perpetuity”. Regal has said it aims to increase the number of affordable homes but has not yet stated how many it intends to include.