The view across the Thames from the O2 could change again soon after more than 1,300 student rooms and 208 homes at Orchard Wharf were approved by Tower Hamlets councillors.
Property developer Regal also plans to build a facility to process parcels delivered by river on the site, which faces the Greenwich Peninsula and is between the East India Dock and the distinctive Goodluck Hope development. The new SL4 bus through the Silvertown Tunnel stops by the site after it leaves the tunnel.
Councillors on Tower Hamlets’ strategic development committee backed the plan for six towers of between 12 and 21 storeys on Wednesday night, There would be 1,352 student rooms set back from the Thames. Of the 208 homes on the riverfront, 138 would be for social rent and 70 for shared ownership.
Ashley Lumsden, the chair of London City Island and Goodluck Hope Leaseholders’ and Residents’ Association, said approving such a high number of student homes would be a “huge missed opportunity” for more affordable family housing.
He told councillors: “The question of student housing – is that what’s needed? What we hear is that the market is not demanding that because no university wants to take on that provision at the moment.”
Lumsden also questioned whether the housing – which would be a mixture of social rented and shared ownership homes – would be “good quality”, especially as the parcel delivery operation could operate 24 hours a day.
He also said the council should demand more family homes. Of the 208 homes proposed, only 15 would have four bedrooms.
Lumsden said: “The social housing – what quality is being provided? This is above an industrial site which might be parcel delivery but it could be a completely different industrial use and it’s going to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week underneath the homes of these 200 households.
“We’re told that it will have triple-glazed windows but the only ventilation if it gets too hot in the summer will be to open those windows to that 24-hour noise.”
Regal representative Steve Harrington said the site was a safeguarded wharf, meaning that it can only be used to handle waterborne freight and had to be capable of operating around the clock.
He said this meant Regal’s noise assessment had to consider the effects of a “worst case scenario” and concluded that up to 64 vessels every 24 hours would be appropriate. However, he added that the proposed operator, Thames Clippers, would unload about nine vessels a day, and these would be mainly between 6am and 10pm.
Developers’ plans also say the flats will be fitted with mechanical ventilation systems that can cool the homes.
Council planning officers recommended that councillors vote to approve the plans.
Planning officer Fran Haines said the student housing would help to ease Tower Hamlets’ housing needs “both directly through housing students, and indirectly” by “easing pressure on traditional rented homes”.
She added that it was usual for universities not to commit to buying new student flats until later in the planning process.
Haines also said that Regal had “gone beyond what is deemed neccessary” to mitigate noise impact on residents.
On the Greenwich side of the Thames, councillors backed plans for a 36-storey student block right next to the O2 in February 2024, with the developer, Crosstree, saying it hoped to start work this year. However, final approval for 820-room scheme has not yet been signed off by Greenwich’s planning department.
Additional reporting and editing by Darryl Chamberlain. Nick Clark is the local democracy reporter for Tower Hamlets, based at Social Spider CIC. The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a BBC-funded initiative to improve coverage of local councils.
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