Landsec reveals new designs for O2 Centre redevelopment

Camden Council has already approved plans for many of the existing buildings at the O2 Centre site to be knocked down to make way for 1,800 homes.

Initially, 600 homes were earmarked for the first stage of the development, where the former Homebase store and hundreds of car park spaces can be found.

But developer Landsec recently said it hopes to submit an application to the council to change some of the details of the approved plans.

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As part of these new plans, the number of homes built during the first phase of the development will increase to around 650, despite the developer removing one of the planned blocks from the scheme.

This will be achieved by adding one or two additional floors to most of the remaining blocks, with the tallest now standing 17-storeys high.

The firm founded by London 2012 Olympic cauldron designer Thomas Heatherwick has also joined the development team, purportedly to help to “humanise the scheme”.

Pictures have now revealed the latest designs for the new proposals, which will increase the amount of green space on the site.

The approved scheme (left) will be altered with updated designs (right) by a new planning application (Image: Landsec)

Other proposed changes to the plans include planting 55 extra trees and enlarging the planned community centre.

Work on this initial stage of the development is expected to start early next year, including the reconfiguration of the shopping centre’s car park.

A series of community events and workshops about the revised plans have taken place in recent weeks. A consultation on these closes next Friday (November 15).

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More green space is now planned for the site (Image: Landsec)

After the end of this period, Landsec is expected to lodge a section 73 application with Camden Council, which would ask to make the proposed changes to the original planning permission.

The authority first approved the redevelopment of the O2 Centre in March last year, before it was rubber-stamped by the Mayor of London in December.

Developer contributions for the scheme are expected to be worth millions of pounds.

These include £10m towards step-free access at West Hampstead Tube station, £1.5m towards Finchley Road pedestrian improvements and £1.1m for bus and cycle improvements in the local area.