Lewisham: see the 31-storey tower being built on top of a Victorian warehouse in south-east London

The building, which will provide 502 rooms for students as well as offices, was waved through by a Lewisham planning committee on Thursday (November 7).

Two facades of Scott House, a four-storey warehouse dating to the Victorian era, will be retained under the proposals — with the tower constructed over the building. The rest of Scott House, which is currently home to 19 families, will be bulldozed.

Phoebe Juggins, from student accommodation developer Your Tribe, said the tower would help meet growing demand for university housing in the area. She told the meeting on Thursday: “At present, there are around four students competing for every purpose-built student room in London. In Lewisham, the demand is similar. Within one-mile catchment of the site, there are around 4,245 purpose-built student accommodation beds either existing, under construction or consented.

“This represents accommodation for only 31 per cent of students already living in this one-mile catchment. Our plans will help ease this pressure by providing 502 new homes for students, 35 per cent, or 176 beds, being affordable.”

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But objectors disputed the idea that the area needed more student accommodation, including a speaker from legal charity Southwark Law Centre’s Planning Voice project, who argued Deptford had an ‘over-concentration’ of student housing. She noted that there were set to be 4,747 rooms of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) within a mile of the site – more than London’s annual yearly PBSA target.

Rudi Schmidt, councillor for the Evelyn ward in which the site sits, added: “I do not believe this is the right development for Evelyn. […] It will increase the density of PBSA to 1,750 beds within the ward. It represents the loss of 19 homes. I believe it will increase the competition in the private rented sector.”

Previous proposals for Scott House approved by the council in 2021 but never constructed would have seen a 27-storey block containing 137 flats built on the site. A Scott House resident, who gave her name only as Amber at the meeting, said the new proposals displayed a lack of regard for existing tenants.

She told the meeting: “The applicant’s proposal makes no consideration to myself and other existing Scott House residents, the overwhelming majority of whom also oppose this application. The previous planning application for this site was approved for mixed residential accommodation, presenting an opportunity for residents and families to return. However, no such opportunity will be available under this application.”

David Robinson, Lewisham Council’s major and strategic project manager, told the meeting that there was a mix of developments in the pipeline for the Deptford area, including flats, adding that refusing the plans on the basis of over-concentration of student accommodation was ‘not tenable’. He added that student accommodation went towards meeting the council’s annual housing delivery target of 1,667 homes per year.

In April, Birmingham Council refused similar plans for a 42-storey skyscraper on top of a Grade-II listed Georgian hospital. Speaking at the time, a councillor branded the proposals ‘utterly bonkers’.