Artist’s impression of how it could look, detail

A HIGHLY controversial tower block scheme could be heading to the High Court.

Campaign group Save Museum Street (SMS) is fundraising to launch a judicial review to stop the demolition of Selkirk House in New Oxford Street.

The building, in 1965 originally headquarters of the hotel chain Trust House Forte, is set to be replaced with a 19-storey tower block.

A developer says the cost of retrofitting is too high.

SMS’s Kathy Doyle said: “Despite the disappointment of being turned down for a call-in by the mayor and the secretary of state, when the issues involved could be properly examined in a public inquiry, instead of being brushed under the carpet as at the planning committee meeting, undeterred, we’re going for judicial review, and need to raise funds very rapidly.

“We feel that having run such a good and persuasive campaign for the last three years, we would be letting ourselves down, and lett-ing the Bloomsbury and Covent Garden conservation areas down, if we didn’t exhaust every avenue to get this monstrous development stopped.”

The group has already forced developers into redrawing their plans, had commissioned climate crisis experts to provide evidence why the building should not be knocked down, shown how much the scheme would cut daylight from houses, commissioned an architect to draw up alternative proposals and got six buildings given Grade-II listed status.

Sold in 2022 for £108million, Selkirk House has been used in recent times as a Travelodge budget hotel and has been empty for five years.

Camden Council granted permission to Simtem last November after a three-year campaign to have the scheme blocked.

Owners Simten said the costs of retrofitting the building were too big to make it viable, and a car park structure of lower floors would be a costly and complex engineering problem to solve that would create spaces that would be hard to let.

Objectors say it will ruin Bloomsbury’s conservation area, is a climate disaster to demolish instead of retrofit, and will impact historic buildings being revamped under the scheme.

Last week the SMS campaign learned that the GLA would not be overriding the decision and that levelling up secretary of state Michael Gove, who also has the power to block the project, would not step in.

As a last roll of the dice, the group are raising £10,000 to take the issue to court for.
Simten, backed by investors BC Partners, said the application’s success was a “key milestone” in making a new use for a derelict building in a key West End location.

They added: “The plans replace existing, poor-quality, homes that have been unoccupied for a number of years and 77 per cent of the additional homes by floor space will be on-site, affordable, housing including family-sized homes.”

The company added their approach had been “thoughtful, considered and balanced”, and added: “The proposals have been developed over four years and will deliver a significant uplift to provide new, high-quality, healthy workspace for around 1,700 people, alongside homes, shops, cafés and restaurants.

“The application ret­ains the basement, and the new buildings are des­igned to meet high environmental standards.”

Simten added they had considered a retrofit option and that it was not feasible, creating carbon-intensive “substantial structural, safety, and design challenges,” and would not create a building that would be well used and have designed-in longevity.