Plans for a 43-storey tower near the UK’s oldest synagogue in continuous use may be decided by Angela Rayner after the Government stepped in to prevent the local authority granting approval. An application to construct the office block a short distance from the Grade I listed Bevis Marks Synagogue is due to go before the City of London Corporation’s Planning Committee next month.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has however issued an Article 31 ‘Holding Direction’ restricting the granting of permission by the Corporation, to allow the Government to consider the case.
It does not prevent the committee from reviewing the application or indicating its view, nor does it prevent members from refusing it, but means the Government wants to scrutinise the application before it can be approved.
Rabbi Shalom Morris of Bevis Marks Synagogue, which was founded in 1701, said: “We welcome the intervention of the Deputy Prime Minister on the threat to Bevis Marks Synagogue. The future of Bevis Marks Synagogue is now very much on the national agenda, as befits its Grade I listed status and its historic role in British Jewry.”
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Under developer Welput’s proposal, Bury House will be demolished to enable a 43-storey office tower to be constructed in its place. The Grade II listed Holland House and Renown House will also be part-demolished and redeveloped, delivering new community and cultural opportunities alongside the workspace.
Since its submission it has drawn more than 1,300 objections due to concerns over the impact on the synagogue’s heritage and religious practices. A taller 48-storey proposal for the site was refused by the City of London Corporation in 2021. Historic England has described the current submission as worse than the rejected plans due to its impact on the Tower of London and the Grade II listed Holland House.
The UK’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, is among those to have aired concerns about Welput’s proposed scheme, with historians Sir Simon Schama, Tom Holland and Simon Sebag Montefiore and former Lord Mayor Sir Michael Bear also objecting to the plans.
A spokesperson for Welput said the project ‘seeks to maximise public benefits by considering the future use of the entire site’. They added: “This approach, focused on public benefit, is guided by a profound respect for the historic, heritage and cultural importance of the area around this site and we have developed our proposal with this context in mind.”
On the Holding Direction, they said: “Regarding the issuing of the Article 31 order, we had anticipated that the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government may take an interest. We are ready to present the compelling attributes of our proposal to the Secretary of State as we have done with the Greater London Authority and The City of London Corporation.
“It is our steadfast commitment to maintaining an open and cooperative dialogue with all community stakeholders, including the Bevis Marks Synagogue, and to continue exploring constructive solutions that bring this exciting, community-driven project to fruition.”
A Holding Direction was issued earlier this year by the previous Conservative Government ahead of the London Wall West scheme going to planning. This was however subsequently lifted, meaning the City’s indicative approval agreed by the committee was taken forward.
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