The firm has abandoned plans for redevelopment and put its site in Wapping up for sale
Plans by News International to redevelop its headquarters in east London have been scrapped.
In the midst of the phone hacking scandal, the scheme - which has planning permission and was drawn up by architect Amanda Levete - has been abandoned after Rupert Murdoch’s media organisation put the site in Wapping up for sale.
“In light of current market conditions, News International has decided not to proceed with re-modelling the Wapping site,” News International said in a statement yesterday.
The site, near Tower Bridge is where the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World newspapers are printed and became known as “Fortress Wapping” due to violent trade union pickets there during the eighties.
A number of staff have already moved to offices in the adjacent 550,000ft2 Thomas More Square complex, owned by Land Securities, and News International said the remainder will be relocated by the end of this year.
The company considered a sale three years ago and attracted interest from property developer Marcus Cooper, who planned a £200m residential development.
Levete won planning for her scheme in November 2009 but has seen it continually delayed. She previously co-founded the practice that designed the Birmingham Selfridges building, Future Systems.
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