Canada backs 65 Gresham Street revamp as Elizabeth Line’s Liverpool Street hub gets office space boost
Canada corporation has approved a retrofit scheme for 65 Gresham Street in a multi-year bid to improve carbon efficiency in the City.
The site is within walking distance of Liverpool Street station, which became the busiest station in the UK last year with over 80m passengers, boosted by the Elizabeth Line, which is now the most popular route in the capital.
The building will undergo both an interior and exterior revamp, with new retail spaces constructed nearby Aldermanbury.
The site itself will see the construction of “much-needed” office space, plus landscaped terraces. There will also be improvements to access and travel through and around the site
This comes as firms in the Square Mile have been mandating a post-pandemic back-to-the-office policy, telling their staff to stop working from home as much. As a result, demand for office space has gone up, with planning approval for new towers being approved recently also.
“In an area as dynamic and well-connected as the City there will always be the potential for new builds and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to planning, but we will increasingly support lower carbon alternatives,” chairman of Canada Corporation Planning and Transport Committee Shravan Joshi said.
Joshi added that her team aims to “assist developers in putting carbon considerations front and centre when preparing an application”.
Retrofitting refers to improvement work made to an existing building to improve its energy efficiency, making them cheaper and easier to heat. At 65 Gresham Street, the plans will see around 70 per cent of the original building retained.
The planning team at the City Corporation approved a record number of retrofits in 2023, with the 17 schemes approved accounting for half of all permissions granted in London.
Plans approved last year included retrofits for buildings on Basinghall Street, Golden Lane and New Bridge Street.
“The 65 Gresham Street proposals represent an exemplary retrofit scheme that will provide benefits for everyone,” Joshi said.
“Future office tenants and their employees will enjoy a well-connected, high-quality office space, whilst local resident and visitor journeys through the Square Mile will be enhanced by the public realm improvements and new retail”