The picture above was produced by a local resident who is concerned about the application for very high towers at Morden Wharf.

The Westcombe Society don’t often comment on planning applications outside our area but as the maximum height of one of these towers will be 130m this proposal it will be considerably higher than anything already built in that area and higher than the development already approved at Enderby Wharf and buildings already in the Greenwich Peninsula Masterplan.  As this affects views from Greenwich Park we thought we would share the details.

Comments need to be in by May 12 2021.  The application can be viewed and commented on here.

There are over 200 documents attached to the application but the most relevant seem to be the mockup views that can be seen in the “Townscape, heritage and visual impact assessment” documents.  The most relevant one seems to be part 2 though there are also relevant mock ups views in parts 1 and 3.

All of the above documents compare views from various locations with three versions – now, with outlines of the proposals and with outlines of the proposals plus already consented buildings at Enderby Wharf/peninsula masterplan.  The proposals are more dominant the closer the view is but in all cases the Morden Wharf proposal is the highest set of buildings so even when everything else is built it will still be very dominant.

Notably none of the mockups show the view from the east of One Tree Hill and from Westcombe Park.  A local resident has produced our illustration showing the effect of these buildings on the view from the east of Greenwich Park and therefore how they will affect Greenwich Park, the Westcombe Park conservation area and the World Heritage Site.

The tallest tower would be three times the height of the current tallest building at Enderby wharf and would therefore be out of proportion.

The local resident who produced the picture also says:

“As well as having an irreversible negative impact on views from Greenwich Park, for residents of Enderby Wharf, Telegraph Works and the surrounding area, the sheer scale of the current proposed towers will lead to considerably reduced light levels for existing homes and at street level. It doesn’t need to be this way.

Secondly, the local infrastructure and road traffic is already at breaking point. Due to the proposed height and density of the proposed towers, current proposals will put even greater pressure on an already overstretched local infrastructure, meaning even more congested roads and longer queues at bus stops, North Greenwich, and Maze Hill. Any new development at Morden Wharf should be scaled back to avoid making the quality of life worse for existing residents.

Thirdly, while we’d welcome plans for genuinely affordable new homes, the proposed properties will be priced to achieve profit targets and it’s a no-brainer that the sheer density of the current proposals will also put downward pressure on the price of similar existing properties also through lower light levels. These negative impacts could be minimised through a reduction in the height of the buildings, still offering new apartments, but in a way that is more sensitive to the existing local area”