A nightclub next to the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels has warned it could be put out of business by a development of 352 homes and 340 student rooms next door.
Fairview New Homes won approval for the development, right next to the busy A102, from Greenwich’s planning board on Tuesday night.
But representatives of Studio 338 claimed the club had not been consulted about the plans and that residents’ complaints could see it shut down.
There were also worries about air pollution, with the homes sandwiched in between the tunnel entrances and Millennium Way, the dual carriageway leading to the O2. Mechanical ventilation systems would be fitted with some flats not having openable windows.
The development at Boord Street, on the site of an old lorry park. would include 26 and 21-storey blocks, an 18-storey block for students and a black five-storey self-storage facility, criticised by one councillor, Dave Sullivan, as an “abomination”.
David Dadds, 338’s solicitor, said that the club had successfully dealt with complaints from the nearby Pilot pub and across the Thames in Tower Hamlets, but said the residents of the new blocks would “complain and we will lose our business”.
The Ibiza-style club has a 3,000 capacity and a glass roof in one of its rooms. It was once a pub called The Mitre, but the community the pub served was wiped out by the construction of the A102 in the 1960s, leaving the building isolated. In the 1980s it hosted the Tunnel Club, a breeding ground for alternative comedy acts, and later became a rave venue.
Dadds clashed with Sullivan, who said: “You may view your club as a lawful business but many people may not see it that way.” He added that the club had been “in effect, ranked the sixth best in the world” and was “very important in London and should be protected”.
He complained that 338 had not been told about the development, with the only letter being addressed to The Mitre.
Fairview said it had tried to contact Dadds by email but received no response.
Planning rules now work on the “agent of change” principle, where if a new development is built next to an existing venue, the developer has to take that into account when designing its homes.
It was introduced following threats to music venues from residents moving into new blocks.
But acoustics expert Torben Andersen said that Fairview had underestimated the level of noise coming from 338.
“To me, an unreasonable restriction would be to turn the sound down by ten or 11 decibels,” he said. “Maybe one or two, that’s probably not a problem.” Any more would render the club unviable, he said.
“These flats will look directly down onto the glass roof – that is part of Studio 338’s USP, it is an outdoor type view, that’s what makes the place so special. If you put a concrete lid on top of it, it stops being Studio 338.”
Gary Dillon, the chair of planning, said he had worked in the nightclub industry and that before the glass roof was installed, noise from 338 used to reach his house more than two miles away in Charlton.
With more applications for housing coming up for the area, Dillon asked what preparation the club was making for it having even more neighbours close by.
Andersen said: “We are constantly evolving our operations. This application is the biggest issue because it looks down onto the venue, I would say the venue has the responsibility to do some action, but the level of reduction my assessment suggests is substantial … and there’s got to be a balance there.”
“Has the club got any idea for containment that it can pass onto the applicant?” Dillon asked.
“Possibly, but there’s been no engagement with Studio 338 by the applicant.”
Mark Jackson, from Fairview New Homes, said the company had “put a lot of work into” assessing noise from the club in the design and location of the blocks.
“We’re very aware of the agent of change, and there shouldn’t be any grounds for residents to object to the nightclub,” he said. “We’re aware it’s a busy regeneration area with established businesses, with noise from traffic and the wharves too.”
West Thamesmead councillor ‘Lade Hephzibah Olugbemi raised the case of Ella Addoo-Kissi Debrah, the nine-year-old who lived by the South Circular Road in Hither Green who had air pollution listed as a cause of her death in 2013.
James Massingham, the company’s engineering manager, said the shift to electric cars and introduction of Ulez would achieve a reduction in nitrogen dioxide levels compared with 2013, but David Gardner, a Greenwich Peninsula councillor, said: “I’m rather taken aback by what you said about NO2 levels, they’re some of the worst in London in my ward – three or four times the recommended limits.”
While levels were going down, he said: “There’ll be this new HGV lane coming out of the Silvertown Tunnel. They won’t be electric and it’ll be the nearest lane to your development.”
He asked if relying on mechanical ventilation was “acceptable in this day and age”.
Jackson said the systems were widely used, and could also govern humidity to prevent damp. “They also have benefits in terms of heating systems, and I think they are good things in their own right,” he said.
Gardner praised the design but said the black box would “dominate” the surroundings and asked if it could be softened. Jackson said Fairview would consider it, but Faye Wilders, the company’s project director, rejected a suggestion that it should be a “living wall”, saying they were a fire risk.
There was also criticism of walking and cycling routes to and from the site – which did not include any route using Tunnel Avenue towards east Greenwich – with Fairview saying that council officers from both the council and TfL had been involved in the assessments.
When it came to the vote, there were six votes for the scheme – Sullivan, Olugbemi, Gardner, Pat Greenwell (Conservative, Eltham Town & Avery Hill), Clare Burke McDonald (Labour, Charlton Hornfair) and Maisie Richards Cottell (Labour, East Greenwich).
But Dillon abstained. He told Studio 338 and Fairview: “Most of the residents will probably be patrons at the club because you’ve got student accommodation. The sooner you get together and enter in a dialogue, the quicker you will come to an amicable solution that will serve both parties.
“I’m not going to support the application. The pollution for me is a big, big worry. I like a lot of the elements of the application. Creating a black box with loads of shiny lines is fine, but people driving cars past are not going to look at the detail. They’re going to see a black box. I don’t consider that to be a landmark building.”
Jackson said that Fairview would be able to start work in the spring, with the first buildings finished in January 2028 with the rest following by the start of 2030.
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