Three future towers north of Canary Wharf now making a mark
After many years of inactivity work on three towers north of the Canary Wharf estate are now rising.
These are the Trafalgar Way towers on a former McDonald’s.
Billingsgate market is over the road with the City of London planning to move that out to Barking at some point.
The three blocks will reach 138m, 109m and 89 metres and total 46, 36 and 28 storeys.
Unlike the eastern expansion of towers seen at Wood Wharf, this is not a Canary Wharf group project. Urbanest are behind it after former plans for residential towers approved 15 years ago did not proceed.
The site is set to provide 1,672 rooms for students alongside 68 flats for UCL staff plus a replacement McDonalds.
Blackwall is the closest station just two minutes away with DLR trains to Bank, though to reach it residents must cross a busy roundabout which is set to become a whole lot busier from 2025 as Silvertown Tunnel traffic will be fed towards it.
A walk to Canary Wharf Jubilee line and Elizabeth line stations are around eight minutes.
Revenue
The site will bring £18 million in Community Infrastructure Levy income to Tower Hamlets. The borough has a 2023 student build CIL rate of £478.29 per square metre.
To highlight how far Greenwich Council lag in securing revenue from developments, if built just east of the Thames they’d miss out on millions by setting an extremely low rate of £89.09 psm.
Crucially, though Greenwich Council finally look to be revising some rates eight years later than committed to in 2015, they are not looking to alter that very low student build levy rate on developers.
So while Tower Hamlet’s rising towers will benefit that borough’s residents, similar benefits are not being seen a short distance away.
