32-storey block mooted for Tower Bridge Road’s £60m site

This summer Southwark Council's planning committee approved plans by First Base and Starwood Capital to strip the unfinished buildings at 151-157 Tower Bridge Road back to their concrete frames and re-clad them.

Now the site is up for sale with a £60 million price tag and the suggestion that a "landmark" 32-storey tower could be built as a "gateway" to SE1 from Tower Bridge.

The recent planning history of the site – located north of St Mary Magdalen Churchyard and south of the Premier Inn London Tower Bridge – goes back to 2001.

After Southwark approved further plans in 2009, construction ceased in 2010 when the developers went bust.

Starwood Capital and First Base bought the plot in 2015 and appointed architects Arney Fender Katsalidis to draw up plans to complete and enhance the scheme.

In May this year those plans were approved by Southwark councillors.

However, the sales blurb for the site says that "informal discussions / pre-application advice has been sought with Southwark regarding a tower option on the existing site to create a landmark 32 storey structure providing a gateway scheme entering from Tower Bridge into SE1".

It is unclear whether such a proposal would find favour with planners, given its proximity to the listed St Mary Magdalen Church and the Bermondsey Street conservation area.