Buckingham Palace balcony to be depicted on Sea Containers House

Work started this spring on the transformation of the South Bank office building into a new mixed-use complex including a new Mondrian luxury hotel.

Workers are currently assembling scaffolding above the Thames Path as part of the refurbishment of the building.

"To ensure everyone's safety, we have had to close the river walkway for a few hours each evening while [the scaffolding] is being put up," said a representative of the developers in an email to local residents. "This has been agreed with Southwark Council."

"To limit disruption, this work is only occurring from 8pm until midnight most nights. It will continue through April until early/mid-May. Signs to divert pedestrians and cyclists behind Sea Containers will be displayed."

The building's owners Archlane are proposing to 'wrap' the building with a giant image 37 metres high to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

A document submitted to Southwark Council as part of an application for advertisement consent shows an archive image of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh with members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

Sea Containers House will form part of the backdrop for spectators watching the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant from Victoria Embankment on Sunday 3 June.

After the Jubilee celebrations the royal photograph would be replaced by different images to "celebrate London and Southwark in 2012" during the Olympics and Paralympics.

The firm says it will make a further application for advertisements to be displayed on the front of the building after the Jubilee image is removed at the end of November.

Further details of the 360-room Mondrian London hotel, due to open at Sea Containers House in 2014, were recently announced. The hotel's interiors are to be created by Tom Dixon's Design Research Studio and will be influenced by the elegance of a 1920s transatlantic liner.

King's Reach Tower

The size of the proposed advertisements on the southern and eastern sides of the tower has been reduced to mitigate the impact on local residents and illumination will be switched off at 10.30pm each night.

Despite the changes, Harvey Nichols Restaurant is maintaining its objection to the the advertising wrap which it claims will cause a drop in trade at the Oxo Tower Restaurant.

In a letter to planning officers, Iain Tuckett of Coin Street Community Builders added that "such dominant advertising is inappropriate and should not be permitted".