East London: Stratford High Street spot once home to Porsche to get new towers with 355 homes and music venue

The plans, which were submitted by The Pickstock Group, will see two tower blocks built on vacant land located at 68-70 Stratford High Street.

The site was last used as a car dealership showroom for Porsche, but this was demolished in 2016. Newham Council’s Strategic Development Committee approved the plans during a meeting on Tuesday evening (March 18). The plans will see an 11-storey and 27-storey building constructed on site and will include space for communal facilities and a community café with an aim to host jazz concerts on certain evenings and weekends.

Jazz East, which is part of the London East Jazz Network CIC, has set its sights on taking up the community space. During Tuesday night’s meeting, Mark Kass from Jazz East told the committee: “Newham is an Arts Council England priority area and as such we’re keen to support this application and welcome the opportunity to operate an arts and culture-themed community space at 68-70 Stratford High Street. We see this as an exciting opportunity not just to promote jazz music, but to support the community aspect of this important development through music and other performance.”

Go beyond the story - sign up for our LondonWorld newsletter

Mr Kass added: “As the jazz hub operators, we would work closely with experienced local social enterprises and entrepreneurs to operate a range of all day community projects including a community café, a flexible workspace, and a destination grassroots music venue.”

The taller building would consist of 272 private rent homes while the smaller building would consist of 83 ‘affordable’ homes. Of the affordable homes, 51 would be social rent while the remaining 32 would be intermediate housing. The site is surrounded by the Bow Back River while various cycle and walking routes are located along Marshgate Lane and Stratford High Street.

Check out the latest developments in London

The council says the development will help to open up the river’s waterfront, which planning officers have said is currently inaccessible. Planning officers previously said the plans mark an opportunity to provide an ‘exciting new use’ of the currently vacant site, while Pickstock said it hopes the scheme will create a vibrant and inclusive environment.

Additional conditions have been added to the development, including limiting the times the café can be used as a music venue while another condition states there must be proper sound insulation provided for all of the units. The development will also provide seven Blue Badge holders’ parking spaces and 660 cycle spaces, while a £250,000 contribution will go towards Transport for London which will see improvements to Stratford High Street. The committee unanimously approved the plans.