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In February London said farewell to Bond Street’s iconic Fenwick department store after 130 years of trading. Now, new plans have been revealed for what to do next with the Victorian building.
Property developers want to turn the old Fenwick store into an office block with a roof garden. Owned by Lazari Investments Limited, the landlord wants to partially demolish the New Bond Street and Brook Street store and have it heightened or ‘jacked up’ with new floor slabs and facades to create new office and retail spaces.
Under the new plans it will still be a shopping spot. The bottom two levels will be turned into a ‘high quality’ retail space, the second to ninth floors will be for offices, and there’ll be a luscious roof garden at the top. Lazari said it aims to keep 75 percent of the historic facades in place, while the retail space will be reduced by 7,600 square metres in exchange for office space.
A subsidiary of property empire Lazari Investments Limited, which is owned by the billionaire Lazari family, was recently placed on London’s rogue landlord list after the company was fined £67,000 for breaching HMO licence conditions on Camden flats.
Westminster City Council has been recommended to approve the plans in a meeting taking place today (April 2). If the council gives it the green light it will head to the London Mayor’s office where Sadiq Khan will have two weeks to accept or reject the Fenwick renovations.
Khan has already expressed concerns about the height and design of the building, and Historic England has objected to the plans saying that the site might be home to prehistoric and Civil War archaeology.
In a report, council officers wrote: ‘The proposal will provide an appropriate combination of modern retail and office accommodation that accords with the relevant London Plan and City Plan policies and is therefore considered to be acceptable.’
For under the radar shopping destinations in London, check out Time Out’s list of the best shops in the city.
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