Skip to content

2025 CAMPAIGN ARCHIVE: A Better Way for Tite Street

This page relates to London Square’s withdrawn 2025 application, PP/25/04989. It is retained as a record of the campaign.

It shows you the impact London Square’s 2025 plans would have had on Tite Street’s unique character. The Friends of Tite Street also developed some alternative ideas for the St Wilfrid’s site that, we felt, addressed the biggest problems with London Square’s plans – the height and massing. Click on the link below to visit our ‘Re-thinking The Plans’ page – where you can see our ideas for what we think could be done if London Square had not overpaid for the site. 

SEE OUR 2025 IDEAS

VIEWS: TITE STREET BEFORE AND AFTER LONDON SQUARE's 2025 PLANS (WITHDRAWN)

After London Square submitted its plans for the St Wilfred’s Convent site we put together some ‘before and after’ artist’s images showing what our street would look like as a result of the 2025 plans. While the existing convent is no architectural gem, it sits lightly within its setting and allows space, light and rhythm to define the street. The scheme London Square proposed back in 2025 would have removed those gaps, introducing a structure of excessive height and bulk that closed key sky views and disrupted the established townscape pattern.

The before-and-after images below show the scale of this change in a way that the images that London Square had chosen to submit as part of their application did not – they highlight the loss of openness and daylight that threatened to undermine Tite Street’s distinctive character and heritage value.

DOWNLOAD FULL 2025 VIEWS REPORT

This campaign was not just about preserving our heritage, but protecting the light, proportion and grace that make Tite Street unique.

Tite Street View

Before image: view of a low brick wall, mature trees and open sky provide a calm break along the east side of Tite Street. After image: view of a five-storey block built hard against the pavement fills the gap, creating a continuous wall of development.
Before image: view of a low brick wall, mature trees and open sky provide a calm break along the east side of Tite Street.

View along Tite Street frontage, looking north, showing existing boundary wall and how it would have been if London Square’s plan to replace it with a towering wall of development had been successful. 3D imagery courtesy of Rendered Image Ltd. | 2025

Today, the east side of Tite Street is defined by critical townscape gaps – calm breaks of sky, trees and light protected in RBKC’s Royal Hospital Conservation Area Assessment. Here, a simple brick wall and mature trees offer breathing space. London Square’s 2025 proposal would have replaced this with a ground plus five storey wall of development, towering over its neighbours and set hard against the pavement. The resulting canyonisation of Tite Street and loss of daylight would have caused serious harm to its character and heritage setting.

View from the Royal Hospital

Before image: view from the National Army Museum car park, varied rooflines and generous sky gaps define the rear of Tite Street, with Tower House the tallest element. After image: view of London square's proposed building rises higher still, replacing the articulated roofscape with a flat, monolithic form that encloses the view.
Before image: view from the National Army Museum car park, varied rooflines and generous sky gaps define the rear of Tite Street, with Tower House the tallest element.

View from the Royal Hospital car park looking west towards Tite Street, showing existing articulated roofscape replaced by a continuous block. 3D imagery courtesy of Rendered Image Ltd. | 2025

Seen here from the Royal Hospital car park, the impact of London Square’s 2025 proposal is stark. The Tower House at 46 Tite Street – the tallest building on the street today – was itself dwarfed by the scale of the new development then proposed. The existing roofscape, historically varied and finely articulated, was going to be replaced by a flat, monolithic roofline that erased this pattern and enclosed the view. The result would have been a dominant, unrelieved block that overwhelmed the setting and harmed the townscape character of the Conservation Area.

Wider Panorama from The Royal Hospital

Before image: broad panorama from the Royal Hospital car park shows trees, low walls and open sky between buildings. After inmage: view of an extended multi-storey block spans the scene, closing sky views and compressing the townscape.
Before image: broad panorama from the Royal Hospital car park shows trees, low walls and open sky between buildings.

Wider view from the Royal Hospital car park, looking west-north-west, showing proposed continuous block replacing existing openness. 3D imagery courtesy of Rendered Image Ltd. | 2025

As you draw back and take in the wider panorama from the Royal Hospital car park, the impact of London Square’s 2025 proposals becomes even more pronounced. The proposed block extended across the full view, its repeated bays and heavier roofline closing off sky and space. What is now an open, permeable townscape would have become compressed and enclosed – an overbearing backdrop to one of Chelsea’s most distinctive historic streets.

View from Royal Hospital Road, looking North-east

View from Royal Hospital Road looking north-east towards the National Army Museum, showing existing open gap replaced by continuous block. 3D imagery courtesy of Rendered Image Ltd. | 2025

From Royal Hospital Road, looking north-east along towards the National Army Museum, the scale of change proposed back in 2025 is striking. What is today a generous townscape gap framed by mature trees and open sky would have been closed by London Square’s overbearing new frontage. The old proposals eliminated this vital break in the streetscape, replacing light and air with a solid wall of development that eroded the Conservation Area’s rhythm and sense of space.

View from Royal Hospital Road, Looking South-West

View from Royal Hospital Road, looking south-west towards Tite Street, showing loss of townscape gap and increased massing of new development as a result of London Square’s 2025 plans (now withdrawn). 3D imagery courtesy of Rendered Image Ltd. | 2025

Looking south-west from opposite the National Army Museum, London Square’s old 2025 plans – now withdrawn – dominated the upper end of Tite Street. The existing gap – an important breathing space between buildings – would have been entirely lost. The new block’s bulk and height imposed badly on the street, dwarfing its neighbours and destroying the sense of openness that defines this corner of the Conservation Area.

×