The application for planning has now gone in.
23/00484/FULL | Demolition of 2-4 Dean Street and 7 Soho Square and the erection of a replacement building on basement, ground and first to seventh floors (increasing depth of existing basement) for retail and/or restaurant purposes (Class E) on part basement and part ground floors, a multi-use space (sui generis)/pedestrian link between Dean Street and Soho Square on part ground floor and creation of a publicly accessible space (accessed from the pedestrian link and Soho square); use of the remainder of the building as offices (Class E) with associated terraces on fifth, sixth and seventh floor levels; provision of roof plant/plant enclosures, cycle parking green roofs, photovoltaic panels and facade lighting; party wall works including reconstruction of chimneys at 4-6 and 8-9 Soho Square (Site includes 4-6 Soho Square and 8-9 Soho Square) (Linked with 23/00373/ LBC and 23/00375/LBC) | 2-4 Dean Street And 7 Soho Square London W1D 3QB
If you would like to see the plans and comment on this you can do so on the council’s planning website.
Property developers Hines have made initial proposals to re-develop the Tesco site at Dean Street and the north west corner of Soho Square. If the proposals go ahead the new building, another shopping centre with offices, would have a number of smaller shops but no supermarket. The Soho Society has said it cannot support the loss of Soho’s main supermarket which provides an important facility for residents and businesses.
You can participate in the developer's pre-application consultation here. It closes on 7 September 2022.
The developers are making much of the site's historical connections to the "Soho Bazaar" which operated from 1815-1855. The Bazaar has been described as follows:-
”The Soho Bazaar was a benevolent exercise offering respectable women an opportunity to sell whatever fancy goods they could make in their homes. There was a certain stigma attached to public selling, and the righteous were quick to see opportunity for moral turpitude in the retail trade. In fact a ballad was published by printer James Calnach, deriding the leisured classes who frequented the Bazaar.”
While this maybe historically interesting we fail to see its relevance to the proposed development.
There is also a suggestion that there could be some cultural uses - but once again this does not appear to go as far as a performance space which we would support. There is also some indication that the new structure will be environmentally friendly with a wooden frame construction. We suspect a refurb would be more environmentally friendly than demolition and rebuild.
Let us know your view by sending us an e-mail. You can also sign our petition to save our supermarket here.
This was our e-mail following the meeting with the planning group if you want to read in to the background:-
As mentioned in the meeting:-
1) the loss of Soho’s main supermarket as a result of the re-development is not something we can support - we want Soho to remain a vibrant residential community and a supermarket is important for that - you need to find room in your development for one - if not Tesco then another - we think would be very successful opposite the station
2) in Soho we have a number of boarded up shops and half empty offices, this may be temporary but it also may reflect permanent changes in the retail and office market, arguably the last thing we need is more offices and shops, we think you should start with some more searching questions on land use - or at least we need to understand why you aren’t considering alternatives…
3) there is enormous demand for housing nationally and locally so we would like to understand why that is not currently part of the plan
4) the green washing and the heritage washing cuts little mustard with me, I think its a distraction from the main issues and does you no favours - land use first, then design quality and a beautiful space or building is of more importance
5) the loss of the art deco facade in both Dean street and the Square needs to be addressed head on - this is a conservation area - under DES9 - admittedly the old guidance there is a presumption against demolition unless the building has a negative or zero contribution to the conservation area, what is there currently does no harm and makes a contribution - so what is it that is going to add to the conservation area in your proposal? currently its blank.
As I have said in the past consultation would be much more effective if the large information asymmetry between the applicant and the community is removed - generally this means the more information you can share about the project and your thinking - including your financial expectations the better.
And here is the reply.
Many thanks for your email – apologies for the slight delay, it has taken a little while to coordinate a response with the team. I enclose a copy of our a recent presentation to the Society’s Planning Committee as promised.
The team very much welcomed the discussion and hope we are able to agree a way forward, particularly in curating the Soho Bazaar which Hines want to genuinely be an asset to the Soho community. As discussed, the team are in the process of reaching out to a number of cultural groups in the area to understand their needs and how the team could work together to curate the space and if you and fellow members have any ideas in this regard or if using the space would be of interest to the Society for events, please do let us know.
In terms of the further points below, the team recognised and heard the concerns about the loss of the supermarket on the site and the importance to Soho of amenity retail. As mentioned Tesco are already looking to downsize and the team very much noted the Society’s desire for a reprovided amenity retail offer on the site in the future. This is something Hines are giving careful consideration to in the context of the unit’s lawful use and policy designation.
With regard to demand for office and retail space, there has been a clear and discernible flight to quality, particularly post-Covid, where both office and retail occupiers are looking closely at finding the right locations and units. Also in the case of office occupiers, they are looking to take better quality space which is accessible, supports the wellbeing of their workers including with improved natural light, better floor to ceiling heights, access to external amenity space, end of trip facilities and openable windows – this also helps in terms of staff recruitment and retention. The current office vacancy rate in the West End remains low, at 6.5%, so is at a similar level to before the pandemic, and the City Council continues to support office growth in this location, in accordance with its policy position.
In terms of the wider land use point, Gerald Eve have confirmed that there are adopted policies in both the London Plan and City Plan which resist the loss of commercial space to residential use in the CAZ and International Centre. Hines would be very happy to discuss their assessment of the site with you, but have advised that it will prove challenging to deliver residential at upper levels as this would require additional cores and entrances within the building for an additional use, and which would also impact upon the quality of the office accommodation, Soho Bazaar space and Dean Street frontage – including the ability to accommodate the type of retail outlined above.
Hines also wish to emphasise it is certainly not the intention for the emerging proposals to come across as green washing. As you will have observed from the presentation a thorough assessment has been undertaken of the existing buildings and structures and Hines has a track record of undertaking and delivering sustainable developments in London and across the world, including investing in research and development of new sustainable timber technologies such as glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT). In addition there are clear London Plan requirements such as to meet Urban Greening Factor targets which the team would be looking to meet through the application and ties into existing adopted strategies such as the Wild West End as well as of course the greenspace in Soho Square itself.
As discussed when we met, ORMS are still working up ideas for the Soho Square façade and fully recognise the requirement that its loss would need to be replaced by something that contributes positively to the Conservation Area. Again, the team hope to be able to share emerging ideas in terms of the design and local views on Dean Street and Soho Square with you later in the summer for discussion. Perhaps we could arrange a workshop session with you and colleagues later in the summer or early September to discuss this?
In the meantime, in addition to approaching cultural groups across Soho in the coming days we will be launching for wider consultation the emerging ideas based very much around the proposals presented to you. As discussed, this is intended to remove the information asymmetry you are referring to – and would be followed by a further round of consultation in the autumn with more detailed ideas. We hope to launch the initial thoughts shortly to run for at least a month with the opportunity to meet interested or concerned neighbours or residents in the area in addition to the discussions we have already been having with the likes of the French Protestant Church, Dolby Studios, Norges and other sensitive neighbours.
If you have any ideas on what would work well in this key location let us know.