Fulham’s latest 38-storey “monstrous tower” set to loom over Chelsea

Hammersmith & Fulham Council has waved through the fourth phase of the King’s Road Park development in SW6 that will include a 38-storey tower of luxury apartments.

The detailed planing permission also makes way for another tower rising to 28 storeys, plus a seven-storey “podium” building. There is already a 35-storey white (elephant?) tower in place.

King’s Road Park is being constructed by St William, a subsidiary of the giant Berkeley Group, which will see the completion of 1,800 homes and a new park across 1.9 acres. The architectural firm Foster + Partners designed the project that has been widely described as “monstrous”.

The vast development sits in the brownfield area once known as The Gas Works. For decades, The Gas Works was home to hundreds of artisans and artists, who fought a doomed campaign to save the site from re-development.

When it was clear that they were fighting a hopeless battle, the campaigners sought assurances from H&F council and St William that the final development would at least provide some affordable work spaces for small businesses and creatives. No such assurances were given.

One of the campaigners sighed: ‘The nightmare we feared all those years ago has come to pass. Fulham council has completely sold out to the developer and now we have an unnecessarily dense collection of towers of flats and, in comparison, next-to-nothing for the community beyond a manicured open space. What material provision has actually been made for community services in the grand plans?

‘The Gas works was a rare brownfield space in central London that had huge potential. With a bit of imagination, it could have been transformed into something incredibly special. Instead, we have a massing of towers and blocks of flats that are just an extension of everything else Berkeley Group has done to mutilate this part of Fulham for maximum profit.’

The site of sight…