London Assembly member designs new restaurant and flats opposite City Hall

Mr Shah, who represents Brent and Harrow on the London Assembly and also serves as a councillor in Harrow, has resurrected his dormant architectural practice to submit a planning application for the Tooley Street scheme.

The site of the proposed development is directly opposite Potters Fields Park and is just 200 yards away from Mr Shah's office at City Hall.

According to his entry in the London Assembly's register of members' interests, Mr Shah has reactivated his business "exclusively to deal with [a] longstanding professional obligation in respect of a project ...at 188 Tooley Street".

Mr Shah's client, Pramod Patel, proposes to demolish the existing three-storey building and replace it with a six-storey structure incorporating a ground floor restaurant with five one-bedroom flats on the upper floors.

The existing building dates from 1898 and the initials SS O & J on the facade suggest that the building originally had some association with the combined parishes of St Olave's Southwark and St John Horsleydown.

The building is not listed but falls within the Tooley Street conservation area so permission from Southwark Council is required before it can be demolished.

Mr Shah says that the new building will make "a valuable contribution to the street character through [a] classical design solution [which] maintains the character of the original facade".