View of the proposed Baltic Wharf scheme from Bishop's Bridge Road
Baltic Wharf redevelopment - Sharing our final plans
Unite Students and Travis Perkins have carried out a thorough public engagement exercise on the redevelopment of the Travis Perkins site in Baltic Wharf Paddington which began in September 2023. We have met with a large group of stakeholders and involved the local community throughout the design process. In February we shared our initial ideas for the design of the building, and we are now ready to share the final scheme which we will soon be submitting to Westminster City Council.
We will be holding a drop-in exhibition event at Paddington Works and a subsequent online presentation over Zoom.
Monday 29 April 2024, 2pm-7pm Paddington Works, 8 Hermitage St, London, W2 1BE
Or Online: Wednesday 8 May 2024, 6pm-7pm
Background of the scheme
Travis Perkins has owned and operated a builders merchants on the Baltic Wharf site for over 50 years. This builders merchants is very successful, but the facilities that it is operating from are no longer fit for purpose and Travis Perkins has spent a number of years considering redevelopment options – which maximise the potential represented by this prominent site, located within the Paddington Opportunity Area, and ensure a continued and improved builders merchants at Baltic Wharf.
In 2019, Travis Perkins actively marketed the site as a joint venture development opportunity. Over 25 potential development partners submitted proposals, including residential and commercial developers, hotel developers and others. Following an extensive review, Travis Perkins identified that the only viable option for mixed use development on the site, retaining and improving the builders merchants at ground level, was to partner with Unite Students to provide student accommodation and associated facilities on the upper floors.
The initial proposals promoted by Travis Perkins and Unite Students proposed 854 student bedrooms above the builders merchants. These were refused by Westminster City Council in 2022 and since then the project team have been focused on developing new proposals which address the reasons for refusal, including daylight/sunlight impact on neighbouring buildings and the servicing strategy.
Following extensive public engagement we shared our emerging proposals in February 2024. They are based on around 600 student bedrooms – a c.30% reduction split over two blocks with a gap in the middle. This is the minimum number of bedrooms that can be viably delivered, while still allowing the scheme to provide a new builders merchants and extensive on and off-site public benefits.
The majority of the student bedrooms would be occupied under an agreement with Westminster-based King’s College London.
