Blackfriars hotel planning permission

Another day, another hotel application. Us residents are very concerned about a 220 room "lifestyle" hotel that they're planning on squeezing in behind 160 Blackfriars. The entrance will be on Blackfriars Road, but the actual service entrance will be in Pocock Street. The entrance is not big enough to serve what will be 27 to 29 deliveries per day, including refuse collection, between the hours of 7am and 7pm. Several of the hotel rooms will look onto the neighbouring Primary School playground, which apparently the school don't mind (?), additionally the Primary School and much of the housing around the sandwiched in Hotel will lose significant amounts of daylight.

They're planning for it to be a "lifestyle hotel" and claim there are relatively few in the area, despite there being a 192 room CitizenM just around the corner. According to their research, there 11 hotels in the development pipeline around the area, giving us an extra 1849 hotel rooms in Southwark. They also compare themselves to the Hoxton Southwark (192 rooms) and "One Blackfriars Autograph Collection" (161 rooms), yet The Hoxton will have 192 rooms in a 68,200 sq foot space and this planned development is a jaw dropping 220 rooms in just 7,380 sq foot. This will make it one of the biggest hotels in the area, in terms of rooms, but one of the smallest in terms of actual size.

How can anyone claim this will be a decent development, and that it will add to the character of the area? A hotel squeezed into the back of a carpark, overlooking a Primary School, and blocking most of the light going into the Student Accommodation next door (Handily for the developers, Student Accommodation is immune from any daylight regulations).

According to Southwark's own research, which was put together when the Lesoco Campus space was switched from housing to yet another hotel, the GLA worked out 42,900 hotel rooms would be needed in London by 2036 - 1,800 of those in Southwark. This figure has already been met. There isn't a shortage of hotel rooms in Southwark, a quick glance at Booking.com shows high availability for loads of hotel rooms in the area.

It's a farce.

I can't comment on the rest of it, but I think you are clutching at straws when it comes to objecing because it overlooks a primary school.

Mary12345 wrote:

Another day, another hotel application.

True!
Having looked at the plans, the development itself doesn't trouble me greatly but the traffic during construction and then in operation is a concern.

Why are there so many hotels going up now around Waterloo? Has there been some change to planning regs or something? I'm mystified - it's been a busy touristy area for a long time.

PeteStaples wrote:

Mary12345 wrote:

Another day, another hotel application.

Why are there so many hotels going up now around Waterloo?

One of the few places close to the West end that is not full of them already.

boroughbloke wrote:

One of the few places close to the West end that is not full of them already.

Yes true but that's not something that's just happened in the last 5 years! Presume it's driven by rising tourism in general... just seems odd how many are in progress at once in this area.

"a jaw dropping 220 rooms in just 7,380 sq foot"

I'm thinking you either missed a "0" or the number was listed in square metres. Otherwise you'd be looking at rooms that are less than 4' x 5', which may be difficult to let out, even to the cost-conscious London visitor...

PeteStaples wrote:

just seems odd how many are in progress at once in this area.

It's called displacement. The area used to be a location for cheap offices and cheap residential. The west end was for expensive offices, high end residential and mid to high hotels. The West End and surroundings is no longer a place for mid price hotels. Only high and uber high end offices, residential and hotels are economically viable. At the same time Waterloo/Southwark/Bankside has filled with expensive offices while the cheap offices are rapidly vanishing and being replaced with high end residential and hotels depending on location. Waterloo is an especially good location because of the transport links.

From looking at the plans, most of the rooms will be between 10.8 meters square and 13.5 meters square, and will get very little daylight. The bigger rooms don’t appear to get any day light at all! No windows, just a wall.

There’s just about enough room for a bed and a shower. It’s definitely not in the mid to high end range of hotels.

Here are some of the plans:

http://planbuild.southwark.gov.uk/documents/?GetDocument=%7b%7b%7b!%2fuhsH6eMdQY0oEy8uLJmbA%3d%3d!%7d%7d%7d

http://planbuild.southwark.gov.uk/documents/?GetDocument=%7b%7b%7b!itsCFQ1%2bhLewt2RKhBC4QQ%3d%3d!%7d%7d%7d

Looks like mid to high for central London. Won't be getting much change from £100 a night. Many, me included aren't much interested in windows since they are not there for the view.

boroughbloke wrote:

It's called displacement. The area used to be a location for cheap offices and cheap residential. The west end was for expensive offices, high end residential and mid to high hotels. The West End and surroundings is no longer a place for mid price hotels. Only high and uber high end offices, residential and hotels are economically viable. At the same time Waterloo/Southwark/Bankside has filled with expensive offices while the cheap offices are rapidly vanishing and being replaced with high end residential and hotels depending on location. Waterloo is an especially good location because of the transport links.

That makes sense. So much for Airbnb putting traditional hotels out of business eh.