Stratford office block demolition underway for 36-floor Unite tower
An office block in Stratford is quickly coming down as work moves ahead on a student tower with 716 rooms near the station.
Permission was granted for a 36-storey tower in 2022 from the London with student accommodation provider Unite buying the site in early 2023, with funding to proceed recently announced.
Demolition begun in April. I recently travelled to Stratford to take photos of a number of sites and chanced upon this site halfway through coming down.
Thus I ended up taking about 50 photos from both the station, nearby footbridge and street beside.
Firstly from the station which shows how close it is. One curious little detail here at the end of Stratford platforms is that Jubilee line passengers can use a footbridge but DLR passengers cannot. It exists but no customer access. Staff only.
Perhaps it will be opened when new DLR trains with greater capacity begin running from next year? I doubt it though.
Then it was onto a nearby footbridge which would see dust clouds in the eye every few seconds.
Offered a good view though.
Incidentally work on a new station entrance at Stratford – which will reduce the need to use this footbridge – is making slow progress.
Perhaps another post on that soon.
Then around to beside the tower on Great Eastern Road.
Jubilee House won’t be lamented by many with its tiresome Po-Mo 1980s design on a main corner site.
Then again this block will hardly be bringing out the bunting and party poppers in celebration.
Dull is the word. The base seems decent enough though.
Existing towers in this particular area are poor at street level and the whole area seems disjointed.
There’s a lack of active frontages at street level with a tower opposite ignoring the streetline. Instead it has a “public space” which is pretty much dead space.
Stratford has a poor recent history of street frontages at new developments. Head down Stratford High Street for a great example of how not to do it. The London Legacy Development Corporation havn’t done a great job in places.
Anyway, with funding agreed the newest Stratford tower should start rising in 2024.
Another high rise . As a resident that lives nearby and under threat of losing our beloved homes on Carpenters estate, it’s just sad. The residents have to breath in all this pollution which is detrimental to their health. The place has turned into Windy City. We are losing the skyline. It’s more like New York skyline these days. When will it stop ? Becoming unrecognisable. The residents are going through enough as it is.
Probably not going to be popular with this, but i really hope it will not stop. This is the 21st century. It is London, home of 10m. The site is in zone 2/3. And we badly need flats. Not that the Unite tower will solve this, not that there are no issues with planning and infrastructure, but i just don’t get what’s the issue with high rise buildings.