Details emerge of ‘Three Houses’ skyscrapers at London Bridge

Sellar first revealed their proposals – designed by Tate Modern architects Herzog and de Meuron – to local residents at last year's Bermondsey Street Area Partnership Christmas party, prompting a round of discussion and speculation on the SE1 forum.

Since then the development has attracted considerable press attention. Bermondsey Street resident Zandra Rhodes expressed support for the proposal when quizzed by Building Design magazine, but developer Russell Gray who has restored a number of local warehouses was less enamoured.

An Evening Standard editorial has already called for the Mayor of London to block Sellar's proposal even before full details have emerged.

Some press coverage has portrayed the 'Three Houses' scheme as a 'rival' to the nearby Shard of Glass which seems to neglect the fact that both schemes have been brought forward by the same man – Irvine Sellar.

At the end of January Sellar's firm submitted an environmental impact assessment scoping request to Southwark Council which means that some definitive information is now in the public domain.

The development is expected to include approximately 370 homes, a hotel and shops in three towers of 30, 64 and 53 storeys.

The most westerly of the three towers would sit near the corner of St Thomas' Street and Fenning Street on the current derelict car park.

The middle tower would sit just north-west of Snowsfields and the eastern tower would sit between Snowsfields and Bermondsey Street on the site currently occupied by a disused cigar warehouse and due to be used temporarily as a theatre by the Shunt collective.

Sellar's proposal isn't the only high-rise scheme proposed for the St Thomas' Street corridor east of the Shard: there is a separate scheme for a 28-storey tower of student accommodation at the corner of St Thomas' Street, Weston Street and Melior Street where King's College London's Capital House currently stands.