Riverside scheme part of Native Land’s £2bn Bankside Yards development

Make’s plans for an 18-storey office tower on the south side of Blackfriars bridge were unanimously approved by Southwark council yesterday evening.

The block, called Building 1, will sit next door to the nearby railway station and contain around 8,000 sq m of workspace on space formerly occupied by the Ludgate House office block which was opened by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1989 and was home to the Daily Express, publisher UBM and Balfour Beatty.

Building 1 is part of the £2bn mixed-use Bankside Yards development masterplanned by PLP for Native Land, approved in 2014, and which will contain eight new buildings up to 50-storeys in height.

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The area will be home to a cluster of tall towers including Make’s Building 1 (middle left)

Multiplex has already been carrying out work at the site which began in earnest six years ago with the demolition of Ludgate House by McGee.

The wider scheme will be part of an emerging cluster of tall buildings on the south side of Blackfriars bridge which includes Simpson Haugh’s residential One Blackfriars, built by Multiplex, and AHMM’s 240 Blackfriars office completed by Mace eight years ago. Foster & Partners have also unveiled plans for a 200m mixed-use tower on a cleared plot opposite 240.

Make’s 75m-tall block replaces previously consented plans by PLP which were approved in 2014 for a 14-storey residential building of luxury apartments on the site.

The team working on the job also includes project manager Gardiner & Theobald, planning consultant DP9, landscape architect Gillespies, QS Core 5, structural engineer AKT II, sustainability and services consultant Sweco and Tavernor Consultancy on townscape.

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The scheme will be built next door to Blackfriars railway station

Southwark’s planning officer said the architecture on the scheme was “exceptional” and said it would not impact of the setting of any nearby heritage assets, which include the adjacent 1869 Blackfriars Road bridge.

The officer added the block would form an “engaging local landmark” with its moderate height acting as a transition between the riverfront and the cluster of taller buildings further south.

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