The applicant is listed as Ridley Dalston Ltd, and the floorplans have been drawn up by PAPA Architects.

The existing office building was completed in 1992 and forms part of a complex of similar buildings on Peregrine Road near the junction of Romford Road. If approved, residents will be based a short walk from Hainault Forest Country Park but a 30 minute walk to the station.

The plans have been submitted under the Prior Approval regulations, meaning that there is limited scope for rejection.

Photo credit Google Street View

The scheme replaces a terrace of cottage style studio flats on Marlyon Road, on the outer edge of Hainault, close to Hainault Forest Country Park. The site is a half hour walk from the nearest station, so the provision of 63 car parking spaces isn’t surprising.

PRP is behind the designs, which include terraces two storey plus roof houses in two shades of light grey brick, plus three storey flats with balconies.

Most of these sites are small infill locations, replacing underused garage blocks, car parks and vacant land with only one of the six applications having a non-parking previous use.

The schemes range is size from six units to 32, although the majority are on the smaller side, having to fit into relatively small plots of land that the council owns.

The schemes have been split evenly between two architectural practices, PRP Architects and Frank Shaw Associates. Both have chosen a brick-palette, with Frank Shaw Architects have sloped roofs on two schemes and a set-back mansard roof on their third, while PRP preferring flat roofs on their two larger developments, while going for a traditional roof on their small scheme of terraced houses.

The largest of these projects is a 32 flat scheme on an existing estate in South Woodford, located next to the M11 sliproad. This consists of a three-storey and a four-storey block, designed by PRP.

Top image: Coppice Path, Chigwell – Frank Shaw Associates

We covered the scoping application for this site in early August, and now developer Xyan Holdings (we don’t know who they are either, although they are using Swiss-based The Leading Properties of the World as development manager ), have submitted their full application.

The scheme, designed by Matthew Lloyd Architects, replaces a block of vacant Victorian retail with residential uppers shops in an urban block that has otherwise been comprehensively redeveloped including one tower.

The designs went through various iterations before settling on the final scheme. Considerations were given to a tower next to the neighbouring tower, which has a mostly blank wall in order to allow a tall neighbour. However this was rejected in favour of a tower at the far end of the site, allowing better views for all residents. A darker facade also was originally proposed, although this was changed during the consultation process.

The new tower, branded as Metro Tower, has a white facade with groved-vertical elements of single fired engobe white terracotta, with perforated metal balustrade balconies, some of which will be Juliet style, in a zig-zag pattern on the central windows, with the corner elements having external balconies that project past the corner of the building, again in a repeating pattern.

Ilford already has a selection of towers, including a  neighbouring 21-storey building called Raphael House, and the tallest building in the area at the other end of the High Road, Pioneer Point, where the tallest of the two towers is 36-storeys. With Crossrail due to arrive various other towers have seen proposals submitted, including a tower above the shopping centre car park, and a recently rejected – largely on grounds of low affordable housing provision – proposal for the Sainsbury’s supermarket.

The Metro Tower will have 147 apartments, currently all proposed to be private tenure. These consist of 59 one-bed flats and 88 two-bedroom apartments, interestingly without any larger penthouse style or family-sized dwellings.

The new building, designed by AWW, will still contain retail on the ground floor, as well as offices, but will be mostly residential with 323 flats – all listed as being for the private market in the application forms, although this is likely to be changed during negotiations with the council.

Ilford has seen numerous tall buildings proposal in recent years – some of which have been actualised such as the Pioneer Point development, which has been subject of controversy due to having been partly empty in order to avoid payments due to the council, while other developments have stayed firmly on the drawing boards, including the recently rejected Sainsbury’s redevelopment which was thrown out in part due to a very low affordable housing offer.

The new tower proposed for this site has a brick warehouse feel, with different elements of the building expressed in different brick colours with a palette of greys and whites used. The side of the mid-rise building on the high street has a design that echoes the facade of the Gibson building in its heyday, but in significantly more attractive copper colour.

Ilford is already only a short journey from London Liverpool Street on the line recently taken over by TFL Rail, and will be on Crossrail giving it access across central London without switching trains. This has prompted a number of recent applications for towers.

The town has a large shopping offer, including a sizable shopping centre and long popular high street, making it the largest shopping district between Stratford and Romford, and arguably on the same level as the latter. Despite this property values have remained low in the area, making it increasingly popular with first-time buyers, with mortgageable one-bed flats, even in Victorian properties, available for under £200,000 currently. Crossrail is predicted to change that.

The building will contain 147 homes ranging from studios to two bed apartments. In addition to the 30 storey peak, the building would step down to 12 and then 6 storeys.

Retail units would be provided at the ground level, replacing the existing – but current vacant and derelict – units on site, at 226 to 224 High Road.

The site isn’t new to the planning system, with permission having already been granted for a substantially smaller scheme, of 101 flats in a 15 storey building.

The existing buildings are Victorian villas with shopping units in their front gardens. Immediately to the east of the site is a 20 floor tower around a decade old, and across the street is a post war 13 storey office block. A smaller new residential building is currently under construction to the rear.

Photo credit: Google Streetview