Stanhope goes back to South Ken

Sir Stuart Lipton revives negotiations for 295,000 sq ft redevelopment of rundown Tube station

Paul Norman, Estates Gazette

24 September 2005

Sir Stuart Lipton has returned to the fray of his bloodiest recent battle – Stanhope’s controversial plans for a major mixed-use redevelopment above South Kensington Tube station, SW7.

Stanhope has reopened negotiations with Kensington & Chelsea council about redeveloping the rundown station, the gateway to a cluster of the capital’s most famous museums.

Stanhope was first appointed for a Terry Farrell & Partners-designed high-density scheme back in 1998, alongside Li Ka-Shing’s Hutchison Whampoa.

The 295,000 sq ft proposals comprised around 200,000 sq ft of offices in a 10-storey headquarters building, 125 flats and a dozen ground-floor shops.

But a raft of opposition from local campaigners, most prominently the South Kensington Under Development group – which included dancer Wayne Sleep and cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber, as well as lobby group Bell Pottinger, among its high-profile backers – derailed the project. The planning application was withdrawn at the end of 2003.

The ramifications for Sir Stuart did not stop there. Following unfounded allegations of a conflict of interests at the Kensington scheme, as well as at Stanhope’s Croydon Gateway scheme, he was forced to resign as chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Stanhope’s renewed drive to develop at South Kensington is strongly placed. The site is allocated for redevelopment in the borough’s unitary development plan and fits with government planning policy on public transport hubs.

A spokesperson for Kensington & Chelsea council said that Stanhope and Terry Farrell Architects were in preliminary talks for a “substantially reduced scheme in view of the recent listing of the station”.