From Fleet Street in the west to the Tower of London in the east, the City of London is the ancient core of our capital. Two thousand years of history are evident everywhere, from the outline of the Roman amphitheatre in the Guildhall Yard to the medieval lanes, the Livery Halls, the 30 Wren churches, the Bank of England, the Old Bailey and of course St Paul’s Cathedral.

Today the City is the heart of the world’s leading international financial and business centre.The ‘Square Mile’ has a small residential population of 9,000 which is boosted each day by some 400,000 commuters who come to work in state of the art offices including ‘celebrity’ buildings such as the Gherkin, Walkie-Talkie and Cheesegrater.

The City’s heritage and its economic role are both of national importance so the City of London planners have to strike a careful balance in guiding future development.

City of London Local Plan

The planners guide development through the City of London Local Plan and no sooner had the plan been adopted in January 2015, than the City Corporation decided it should be reviewed.

The current plan has a time horizon to 2026 by which time it anticipates the Square Mile’s workforce will increase by 25,000 to some 430,000. The City planners are now looking into their extra strong crystal ball to work out what sort of place the City needs to be 10 years further into the future in 2036.

At this stage, the City planners are looking to identify the big issues ahead and the options for responding – and they are not shirking from raising fundamental questions about the City’s future development.

Questions and issues

At a recent meeting of the City’s Local Plans Sub Committee, Members were presented with a wide ranging set of issues and questions, including:

•Should the City continue with its generally restrictive approach to residential development or could it be more flexible outside an identified Commercial Core? More fundamentally, can offices and residential uses co-exist in certain areas or even certain buildings?

•Conversely, is the City losing too much older office stock to other uses, given that such space can be useful for smaller enterprises and new business sectors?

•Is there scope for further tall buildings across the City – not just in the Eastern Cluster? What are the benefits of tall buildings compared with other forms of buildings for accommodating employment growth?

•The growing number of employees and visitors means more pedestrians, cyclists, buses, taxis and delivery vehicles. Can the footways and streets cope, particularly in and around the cluster of tall buildings? Should public green space be provided on upper floors of buildings to help relieve pressure on ground level open spaces?

•The City is planning a new Cultural Hub focused on the Barbican in the north of the City and looking to link with Tate Modern via St Paul’s and the Millennium Bridge. As part of this, plans are being considered for creating a new concert hall on the site of the Museum of London, with the latter moving to the old Smithfield market.The new Crossrail station at nearby Farringdon (opening 2018) will add further to the area’s attractiveness so there is a lot to be managed.

We will get a clearer idea of the priorities and options as the City Corporation progresses to its first round of consultation on the review scheduled for early summer. For now the message is: watch this space.

Further information

Contact the Savills City Planning Team