Eight new rooftop apartments in Primrose Hill were waved through by Camden Council after a planning saga lasting three decades
Eight penthouses will be added to five residential blocks in Camden despite scores of objections from local residents.
The council’s planning committee rubber-stamped proposals to add extensions to Primrose Hill’s Darwin Court on Thursday, August 21, turning the page on a planning history going back three decades.
Developer Airspace Group is set to build single-storey flat roof extensions across all five blocks in the residential estate, delivering eight self-contained properties ranging between two and three bedrooms and each with a private terrace.
But numerous inhabitants objected to the scheme out of fear of the impact on service charges, disruption from works and what they see as insufficient evidence that their building can even bear the weight of the penthouses.
After 150 households objected to the proposals in 2024, a dozen more residents urged the council to reject the bid. Many were unconvinced that the building could even bear the weight of the extensions, and were also wary of service charges being driven up as a result of construction.
“The eight luxury penthouses are prospective. The 104 homes at Darwin Court exist now. I’m urging you to protect the people already living here,” said resident Teri Olins.
The plans have a long and chequered history punctuated by residents lobbying against redevelopment. An application in 2010 was notably refused after local households gathered 10 pages’ worth of signatures in a petition against the plans.
In 1996, a Planning Inspector had dismissed an appeal against the council’s refusal, arguing that any increase to their height and massing would make them “even more dominant and overbearing”.
Although Camden approved the plans in November 2024, Airspace was forced into another consultation after residents alerted HS2 to the fact that the council had not consulted them on the proposals to dig underground, which have now been dropped.
While construction below ground has now been ruled out, the planning twist gave opponents another chance at Thursday’s meeting to share their concerns.
But the council planning committee stuck to its earlier decision to grant planning permission. Officers argued that the scheme’s public benefits outweighed “less than substantial harm” to the local conservation area.
This includes £500,000 in cash paid directly into the council’s affordable housing fund, as well as landscaping upgrades and new platform lifts throughout the building.
Town Hall planners also concluded that the local need for housing in Camden had only risen since the original submission.
HS2 notably did not object, but merely asked the developer to commit to providing detailed documents for the plans before construction begins.
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