The City of London Corporation has approved plans for a new 21-storey office-led development and rejuvenation of a listed former newspaper headquarters at 120 Fleet Street.
The City Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee supported the plans by CO-RE, which include detaching the Grade II-listed Daily Express building from River Court.
The latter will be replaced with the new tower which will offer in excess of 61,000 sqm of high-quality office floorspace.
The art deco Daily Express building will be transformed into a publicly accessible cultural destination with social and educational outreach. It will become home to a free publicly accessible landscaped public roof garden.
The development will enrich the local area with increased pedestrian permeability and public realm enhancements including pavement widening, tree planting and a new east-west route connecting Shoe Lane with Bride Street.
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The scheme also represents an uplift in ground floor retail floorspace in the Fleet Street Principal Shopping Centre, with an increase in active frontage.
The new high quality development embeds health and wellbeing practices including unique south facing landscaped terraces for office occupiers. It also encourages active travel with an innovative ‘Cycle House’ with 85 short stay and 149 long stay cycle parks, maintenance stations, a café/retail offer as well as a concierge service dedicated to cyclists including cargo bike delivery.
Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, Alastair Moss, said: “This development is yet another example of how the City can balance the constant demand for new office space, whilst maintaining due respect to the Square Mile’s unique history.
“Fleet Street is renowned as the former home of London’s newspaper industry and this development takes care to rejuvenate the old Daily Express building to the next chapter of its rich history. Importantly, it will also allow for a new, high-quality office to be constructed in this key strategic part of the City.
“Developments like this, coupled with the undeniable return of the buzz of City workers, continue to give us unwavering confidence that the Square Mile’s recovery will go from strength-to-strength, as Fleet Street re-invents itself as a key part of the City.”
Featured image by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
