Richard Desmond's £1bn Westferry Printworks Redevelopment Approved After Third Attempt

Richard Desmond’s £1bn Westferry Printworks Redevelopment Approved After Third Attempt

Richard Desmond, the newspaper tycoon, has finally secured planning approval for his ambitious £1bn redevelopment of the Westferry Printworks site on the Isle of Dogs, London. After eight years and three attempts, Tower Hamlets Council has granted permission for the construction of 1,360 luxury flats on the 6.15-hectare brownfield site, which was once home to Desmond’s Northern & Shell publishing company.

The Westferry Printworks scheme will be a comprehensive mixed-use development featuring 13 buildings, ranging from 4 to 31 storeys, to be constructed in four phases over a six to eight-year period. The development will include 1,358 homes, with 35% designated as affordable housing, a significant increase from the 21% proposed in previous applications.

In addition to the residential units, the plans feature a 1,200-place secondary school, over two hectares of public open space, a rejuvenated dock front, and a variety of ground-floor amenities such as shops, restaurants, a community centre, and workspaces. The approval comes nine years after the controversial redevelopment was first submitted to Tower Hamlets Council.

The project has faced significant challenges and controversy, with two previous planning applications being rejected by the council. In 2016, the then London mayor, Boris Johnson, overruled the council and approved a scheme with 722 flats. Two years later, a revised application for 1,500 flats across five tower blocks was also rejected. However, in 2020, the then Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, controversially overturned the council’s decision, despite opposition from the Planning Inspectorate. This decision was later quashed after it was revealed that Northern & Shell had donated £12,000 to the Conservative Party shortly after the approval.

The latest application was approved after significant revisions, including the increase in affordable housing, which appears to have been a key factor in swaying the council. Mace is acting as the development manager for Northern & Shell, with the design by architect PLP, MEP engineering by Aecom, and WSP serving as the civil and structural engineer. Demolition and site enabling work have already been completed, and construction is expected to commence later this year.

The approval marks a major milestone in the transformation of the former Westferry Printworks, once the largest printing facility in Europe, into a luxury residential and commercial development that will reshape the Millwall outer dock waterfront.