Bromley planners have recommended the 222-home plans for approval ahead of next week’s meeting
Plans to demolish the former Bromley Civic Centre and turn the town centre location into housing are set to be approved next week. As part of the plans, Grade II listed Bromley Palace will also be converted into apartments.
Housing developer Galliard Home purchased the 6.74 acre Stockwell Close site for £13.5 million last year. Bromley Council agreed to sell its former home along with other council-owned properties in 2024 to avoid a £164 million fee to maintain and refurbish the outdated buildings.
Galliard’s initial plans to convert two former council office buildings into 128 flats were refused last July due to a lack of natural light. This proposal proved unpopular with Bromley residents who were critical of the high number of one-bedroom flats. 115 of the 128 flats were designed for a sole occupant.
Galliard have now returned to the council with an updated proposal which will make most of the Civic Centre site a residential complex of 222 apartments. Plans to convert two former office buildings—the North Block and Stockwell Building—into housing are being dealt with in a separate planning application.
110 of the 222 residential units will be one-bedroom flats, 95 will be two-bedroom, and 15 will be three-bedroom. There are also two studio apartments.
Of the 222 properties, 200 of them will be for private sale or rent and the remaining 22 will be affordable units. 37 of these apartments will also be designed as later living units in their own block.
The new homes will be distributed across six new buildings that range between four to five storeys in height. Most of the old council offices will be demolished. Bromley Palace will be converted into 11 residential units with a commercial unit occupying part of the ground floor. The site will have 23 parking spaces and 346 cycle spaces.
Bromley planning officers have recommended the proposal for approval as the homes will help towards delivering the borough’s housing supply. It will be discussed by the council’s Development Control Committee on June 1.
Officers said the homes will provide “adequate internal and external living spaces” and the “majority of the proposed new homes will have adequate daylight and sunlight”. They also praised the creation of publicly accessible open space that will be part of the civic centre project.
Some Bromley residents don’t share the opinion of their planning officers, however. The Stockwell Close plans have received 138 objections and only three letters of support.
The Palace Estate Residents Association (PERA) has registered its concerns. Reportedly representing over 1,300 households, the group does not feel the number of one-bedroom flats is in keeping with the family houses of its surroundings.
PERA said the introduction of balconies was “inappropriate and out of keeping” with the visual character and heritage of the area and claimed the “daily opening and close of public parks would put burden on [the] taxpayer”.
The Friends of Bromley Palace Park group noted issues, saying the proposal was “overdevelopment” and “inappropriate for a sensitive, historic, and family-orientated location”. Like PERA, the group feels the five-storey blocks of flats are too tall for the area.
The Friends group also feels as if the new access points proposed for the park will “clearly create a haven for criminals from the difficulty of monitoring numerous entry and exit points”. It also fears that the new development could harm the park’s biodiversity.
Other areas of concern raised by Bromley residents include the harm the development would cause to the heritage asset of the palace, the fragility of the site’s water ecosystem and increased pressure on neighbouring roads due to inadequate parking provision.
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