The scheme between Worship Street, Curtain Road and Scrutton Street, now up to 18 storeys, was approved by the Deputy Mayor for Planning in October 2026
Shoreditch Works Wins Approval From City Hall After Hackney Councillors Backed It Against Their Own Officers
The scheme between Worship Street, Curtain Road and Scrutton Street, now up to 18 storeys, was approved by the Deputy Mayor for Planning in October 2026
By Cyndi Himmelstiere, Shoreditch correspondent
The Decision
ianVisits reported on 15 October 2026 that Shoreditch Works, a redevelopment of the site bounded by Worship Street, Curtain Road and Scrutton Street, north of Liverpool Street station, has been approved. Hackney councillors had provisionally approved the scheme at a planning meeting against officers’ recommendation to refuse. The Mayor’s office then called in the application, held a public hearing, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Jules Pipe, approved it.
The plans will replace low-rise light industrial buildings with a mix of residential and commercial buildings and a new central courtyard. Heights range from mostly six storeys to a tallest of 18 storeys, slightly reduced from the original 2024 proposal. The article gives around 80,500 square metres of commercial, residential, retail, laboratory and creative studio space, plus nearly an acre of new public realm, and says a third of the new homes will be offered at affordable rates.
Why the Deputy Mayor Said Yes
The ianVisits report paraphrases the Deputy Mayor’s reasoning and contains no direct quotes. It says the development is outside Hackney’s zone for developments of that size, that it complies with the wider London Plan, and that its design mixes domestic and industrial uses to a high standard.
Readers will notice the line about the zone. Planning policy in the City fringe divides sites between those where tall buildings are expected and those where they are not, and the argument over which category a site falls into is often the argument over the scheme.
The February Meeting
The saga goes back to a committee meeting on 4 February 2026. The Hackney Citizen reported that after a five-hour meeting councillors voted 5 to 2 against the planning officers’ recommendation to refuse, and that the developer, Linea Properties, agreed to significant amendments, so the application would have to be resubmitted and decided at a later meeting. The article described the plan as including a 19-storey office tower known as the Verso tower, office space for 4,150 workers and 40 new homes, bringing the site total to 78 homes, 35 percent at social or intermediate rent.
Cllr Guy Nicholson, Hackney’s regeneration chief and deputy mayor, was quoted as saying the developer had committed to create more affordable workspace and that the amended plans would be resubmitted as planning law requires.
Two Accounts of the Same Night
Not every account of the meeting agrees. City AM published an opinion piece by Nicholas Boys Smith, founder and chairman of Create Streets, who wrote that councillors voted in favour but the chair then ruled that the scheme could not be accepted and deferred the decision. He described the scenes as unprecedented and the result as more delay. The Hackney Citizen described a 5 to 2 vote against the officers’ recommendation. Both can be partly right, since a committee can vote on a motion and the chair can then rule on what follows, but they are different emphases.
Boys Smith’s piece is an opinion column from an advocate for the scheme, and I treat its descriptions of officers’ views and the scheme’s merits as his perspective.
What Was Built Into the Argument
The Hackney Citizen account lists officers’ concerns: that the tower was too tall and obtrusive, that the scheme was incompatible with the area’s character, that demolishing the offices would erase industrial history and harm local businesses, and that it fell short of Hackney’s targets of 50 percent affordable housing and 10 percent workspace. It said the 9,000-page application was lacking in detail.
The developer said it could not afford the council’s affordability quotas, though the council’s independent consultants found a small surplus. The Victorian Society, Historic England and the Hackney Society objected, and Islington Council objected over the effect on Bunhill Fields cemetery. Sixty-one letters backed the scheme, including one from the Shoreditch Trust.
What Is Still Open
The ianVisits article does not mention listed buildings or affordable workspace commitments, and the final conditions and agreements will be in the Mayor’s decision documents. The Hackney Citizen reported that nearby Grade II* listed terraces on Worship Street, designed by Philip Webb, were to be refurbished at the end of the project, which officers worried could be dropped. I do not know how the final approval deals with that and would advise anyone who cares to read the decision notice.
Construction timelines are not given in the reports I have seen.
The View From the Pavement
For people who live and work in the streets nearby, the question is practical. Demolition is noise. A courtyard is a place to eat lunch. A tower is a shadow. The people in the sandwich shop on Curtain Road have a view that does not appear in a planning report, and I would like to hear it.
If you have views on how the area should change, the next opportunity is the discharge of conditions, when a council or the GLA signs off the details. It is dull, and it is where the detail lives.
A Note From the Comic Press
Comic writers work the same news cycle from another angle. A recent run of dispatches on a property slump in Cebu shows the form: Manila News on slow condominium sales in Cebu, the London Prat on British pensioners asked for referees and a letter from the vicar (at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on an Ohio realtor whose showings now last two hours. Each is anchored to a real market story and uses exaggeration openly. More is at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, there is always The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/