English Heritage recommends Broadgate listing
English Heritage has thrown British Land and Blackstone’s plans to redevelop the Broadgate complex in the City of London into disarray after it recommended last Friday that the site be listed. The institution said that Broadgate Square ought to be listed at Grade II* as it is one of the most important and successful developments of its period and type. It added that people enjoyed the square, which it said was rare for commercial developments, and called it “a triumph of urbanism, a special place in the financial heart of the capital”.
British Land and Blackstone’s plans for the 1980s Broadgate development involve knocking down numbers 4 and 6 and constructing a new 700,000 sq ft office building to form the headquarters for UBS. They have argued against the listing of the buildings. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt now has to decide – the process could take around two months and will involve submissions from British Land and the local authorities as well as other parties. The City of London Corporation has already approved the redevelopment plans.
The Guardian reported British Land as saying that a decision to list “would block the £850m investment in Broadgate, raise the question of where to locate 7,000 permanent banking jobs and put at risk more than 5,000 construction jobs, which would be created over the next three to five years, along with the associated economic activity and growth it would generate”.
