Aviva have submitted a new planning application for 40 and 42-44 Bermondsey St and the Vinegar Yard Warehouse. Whilst this is a huge improvement on its predecessor, the super-greedy, but now scrapped, Seller scheme, it still proposes an enormous height and mass increase on Bermondsey St.
No.40, on the corner with Snowsfields, is proposed to double in height, from 20 to 48 meters, making it some 12 storeys above ground, far higher than anything else on the street. The Vinegar warehouse will mercifully no longer have a glazed office block driven through its centre. Nevertheless, it will still be grossly abused with an overwhelming seven story extension.
As ever, the floorspace figures starkly reveal how heritage is still available for sacrifice to greed in Southwark. A more than four-fold increase is proposed to 172,000 sq ft where only 40,000 now stands. As usual, the Council have encouraged this application with assurances of support for it. They can hardly wonder why their heritage initiatives aren’t taken seriously.
