Squire and Partners’ refurb of 1950s Notting Hill tower approved

He said: ‘The scheme creates a new, extremely high-quality, distinctive campus of buildings and public realm that will complete the regeneration of Notting Hill Gate and be a very positive addition for years to come.’

Following the planning permission decision, Henry Squire, partner at Squire and Partners, said the firm was ‘delighted’ by the decision.

Redevelopment of the tower will see the existing workspace upgraded through extension of the floor plate, the addition of two new floors and the introduction of balconies and a roof terrace.

At the time, Skyline campaigner Barbara Weiss described the mayor’s decision to approve the scheme as ‘terribly disappointing’.

Source:Squire & Partners

The London-based practice’s plans to retain, refurbish and extend Newcombe House by three storeys, and introduce two new neighbouring buildings on Kensington Church Street, replaces previous plans to demolish the tower that were approved four years ago.

Squire and Partners was hired by new owners Beltane and Angelo Gordon to ‘completely rethink’ plans for the prime Notting Hill Gate site, including Newcombe House (built 1958-60).

The office-led retrofit scheme near Notting Hill Gate tube station, submitted for planning in 2023, was unanimously approved by Kensington and Chelsea Council.

The project was subsequently called in by the government, but the mayor’s decision was not overturned and the scheme was finally given the green light by then housing secretary Robert Jenrick in 2020.

PROJECT DATA 

Squire and Partners said the new tower design design was ‘influenced by the international style of Notting Hill and its distinctive 1950s architecture’ with modernist elements such as the vertical expression, solid western elevation and geometric shapes reinterpreted in a contemporary way.

Drawn up with engineers AKT II, the development will keep the structure of the existing Newcombe House, although the neighbouring, and now empty, Royston Court bedsit block will be demolished.

The previous scheme, designed by the since wound-up Urban Sense Consultant Architects and including the demolition of Newcombe House, was finally approved by the London Mayor in 2018.

Newcombe House has long been earmarked for regeneration but plans by former owner Brockton Capital to build a 17-storey tower spent years in planning limbo and were rejected twice by Kensington and Chelsea Council.

These buildings would be demolished and replaced with a new six-storey building containing shops and additional workspace, and a seven-storey building incorporating affordable housing and a medical centre, designed in collaboration with the NHS.

Approved Squire and Partners scheme for Newcombe House (2023 design)