LDS wins approval for 500-home Hackney estate regeneration | News

Plans by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands (LDS) for more than 500 homes in Hackney have been given the green light.

Councilors have voted to approve the fourth stage of the masterplan to regenerate Berkeley’s Woodberry Down estate, which will include a 26-storey tower block.

The Finsbury Park site began construction over a decade ago and will provide more than 5,000 homes when completed.

The final 15,000 square meter phase would involve the demolition of six large post-war blocks of flats and the construction of the tower, four terraced buildings and two detached blocks.

It was cleared by Historic England, who said the site was not in an archaeological priority area and had been affected by successive episodes of building and deforestation during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Only three objections were received from local residents, although the Stoke Newington Conservation Area Advisory Committee criticized the “excessive” height of the buildings and raised concerns about views and loss of natural light.

Education group Hackney Swifts also called for the scheme to contain speed bricks to provide nesting sites for the birds, which are present in significant numbers in the nearby Woodberry Wetlands nature reserve.

This will be required subject to planning consent with the bricks to be designed and installed in consultation with the RSPB.

LDS changed the design of all buildings last year to include double escape ladders, following the government’s announcement of a proposed threshold of 30m for second means of escape in residential buildings in December 2022, before reducing the threshold to 18m.

The practice added corridors to connect separate stairwells, a similar approach taken by Berkeley in overhauling its 1,300-home Oval Village scheme in Lambeth.

Around 2,300 homes have been built at Woodberry Down so far and a further 584 are under construction, while the second of the two new parks is due to be completed next year.

The master plan for the scheme was first approved in 2009 and has been followed by the construction of several ‘kickstart’ schemes on the site, which borders two large bodies of water known as the West and East Reservoir.

This masterplan was expanded in 2013 with a new hybrid application for a further seven phases, the second of which has been completed.