Mount Pleasant

Farringdon, EC1


Client:
Royal Mail Group
Status:
Planning achieved; Commission completed 2016
Size:
8.72 acres
Uses:
Residential, mixed use, commercial, arts and education, public and community
Team:

Farrells, Masterplan architect
AHMM, Architect
Allies and Morrison, Architect
Feilden Clegg Bradley, Architect
Wilkinson Eyre, Architect
Camlins, Landscape architect
DP9, Planning consultant


Achieving planning consent for the c. 1 m sq ft residential-led mixed use Mount Pleasant scheme has been a culmination of strategic dexterity and considered execution over a number of technical, operational, legal, design and planning challenges.

The site straddles two London Boroughs. Among other property constraints, it sits atop Mail Rail tunnels, an underground river, and other subsoil infrastructure. It hosts Royal Mail core operations that cannot be disrupted. It is one of the largest undeveloped open sites in Central London. M3 led a wider property strategy and feasibility study that identified the potential to consolidate operations and accommodate future delivery of housing, employment and amenity space into the community. M3 navigated the team through a complex design and planning process that began with early and extensive consultations, through the adoption of the masterplan by both local authorities as Supplementary Planning Document and via the Mayor to settle determination with a resolution to grant at a public hearing.

With the multi-party s106 agreed, M3 worked with Royal Mail to prepare the site for development, leading the design of enabling works required for partial air rights development, resolution of outstanding property matters, and review of disposal and delivery strategies.