Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has finally revealed its plans for a new office scheme next to the Financial Times building on the Thames. Developer Landsec hired the Danish practice in 2018 to undertake feasibility work for a 30,000-square-meter building at the Red Lion Court site on Park Street.
In mid-March, the latest designs for the plot went out to the final stage of public consultation ahead of a forthcoming planning application. The developer had originally said it intended to lodge its plans with Southwark Council in summer 2019.
Red Lion Court and the neighbouring 1 Southwark Bridge Road, the former home of the Financial Timesnewspaper, were both identified as a key development opportunity in Southwark’s recently adopted local plan.
In 2021, BDG Architecture + Design won approval for its plans to overhaul the 1989 TP Bennett-designed Financial Times building despite criticism from the The Twentieth Century Society.
The proposals include ground-floor shops, a health center, a pedestrian route and pocket park between the Thames Pathway and Park Street and a new public green space facing the river and the Anchor pub.
For more on this story, go to Architects’ Journal.