Theatre plans threat to an ‘oasis’
Towering development is set to include a five-storey hotel
Friday, 2nd May — By Dan Carrier
Garden manager Louise Gates, head gardener Niki Barnett-Henry, and historian Jane Palm-Gold
A MUCH-LOVED oasis in the heart of the West End is under threat after a towering hotel development was given the green light.
The Phoenix Garden is behind the former Saville Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, and on Monday, councillors voted to let developers Yoo Capital create a new basement theatre on the site of the Grade-II listed art deco venue and add a five-storey hotel on top.
Planners admitted the extra floors, making a nine-storey tower, would cast so much darkness on Phoenix Garden it would have to be completely replanted. Opponents said Camden Council’s planning committee had failed in their duty and “chickened out” of a battle to do what was right.
A previous scheme was successfully beaten at appeal and opponents said the council’s lack of stomach for a similar fight will destroy one of the West End’s most cherished green spaces.
The Phoenix Garden was built on a bombsite dating from the Second World War and is seen as a sanctuary in the heart of Covent Garden.
The shadows caused by the new 250-plus bed hotel are so serious that Yoo Capital will have to pay the gardens £50,000 to replace sun-loving shrubs with shade-loving ferns, radically altering the garden.
Garden manager Louise Gates said a raft of residents and civic groups were so stunned by the decision they were considering asking the High Court for a judicial review.
She said: “It felt like a foregone conclusion. The Town Hall’s planning officer focused on the Cirque du Soleil building in the basement and they claimed that would only work with a hotel on top.
“That is not a way to justify this hugely damaging development.”
And she said the garden’s flora, including decades-old trees, needed sunlight.
“The planning officers seem to not understand what a garden is. It is not just an ‘amenity’, as they put it. The very life of the garden relies on the sun. For six months it won’t get any light at all, and for the rest of the year three-quarters will be in such shade the plants there now will die. They simply did not know what they were talking about.
“The irony is Camden Council own this garden and we use it for events to pay for its own upkeep. That is now under threat.”
The former Saville Theatre building which was used as an Odeon cinema
Tom Clarke of the Theatres Trust told the councillors the scheme would destroy an important heritage site with the proposed size of the new auditorium “a wasted opportunity”. He said the claim a theatre could only work with a hotel above was incorrect.
“The council spent considerable public money and officer resources robustly defending the previous refusal with the Theatres Trust just four years ago,” he said.
“This scheme is of significantly greater scale and harm. The lengthy public inquiry established theatre operators consider viability differently to commercial developers, working on longer periods of return. Reputable operators rem-ain keen to deliver theatre schemes within this building.”
And raging against developer Yoo Capital, who are also behind plans to return Regis Road in Kentish Town into a film studio complex, were a host of professional bodies alongside civic and residents’ groups.
The Soho Society, the Bloomsbury Residents’ Action Group, the Covent Garden Community Association, the Seven Dials Housing Co-op, and scores of individuals, all asked for the scheme to be sent back to the drawing board.
Climate Emergency Camden said the application was misleading, adding: “A façade retention scheme does not ‘repair and restore’ an existing building, it destroys it. It will, of course, cause ‘harm’ to a building if you demolish it.”
Yoo Capital bought the cinema in 2021 and under the plans by architects SPPARC, the new theatre and hotel will keep a listed art deco façade, including a Gilbert Bayes frieze, Drama through the Ages.
The architects said the theatre could be tweaked to hold up to 622 seats.
After demolishing much of the current building they also intend to build an extra more storeys on top for a hotel managed by citizenM.
The developers’ pitch to the planning committee added a restaurant group already on board who were “…specialists in creating beautiful spaces with vibrant atmospheres, will deliver a curated dining offer that reflects the vibrancy of the West End”.
They said their design had been guided by “several years of community engagement and consultation”.
Yoo Capital partner Lloyd Lee said: “We are incredibly proud to have received planning approval for the revival of 135 Shaftesbury Avenue.
“The Saville Theatre holds a unique place in London’s cultural memory and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore its legacy while creating something truly new for the West End. From the start, our vision has been to deliver a destination that honours the building’s rich history while embracing the energy and diversity of London’s creative future.
“We’re excited to work with world-class partners Cirque du Soleil, citizenM, Incipio Group, and architects SPPARC, to bring this landmark back to life as a home for world-class entertainment, hospitality, and culture.”
