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Current Development Plans

Within the Covent Garden estate there are currently three schemes at various stages of development.

 

The Mercers' Company's joint venture with Shaftesbury PLC (the Longmartin Scheme) was established in December 2005. The joint venture holds an island site in Covent Garden of almost two acres. The site includes parts of Long Acre, Upper St. Martin's Lane, Shelton Street and Mercer Street. The amalgamation of these property interests within Longmartin means that the block can be viewed as a whole and provides an opportunity to regenerate this prime site to create an exciting new location in which to live, shop, visit and eat.

On 16 August 2007 Westminster City Council granted planning consent to Longmartin Properties Ltd for the Longmatin Scheme. The full proposal can be viewed here.

 

 

Westminster City Council granted planning permission in July 2007 for this scheme. The scheme involves retaining the London Film School within the estate by granting them a long lease of one of our buildings in Dryden Street (see below). The building will be given a bespoke refurbishment to provide the film school with its required specialist facilities.

 

As a result of the relocation of the London Film School numbers 20-22 Shelton Street will be refurbished.

 

 

The building will become modern warehouse style offices between floors 1 and 4, a ground floor retail unit and a basement restaurant. The restaurant space retains many original features such as stone flagged floors, cast iron columns and a vaulted brick ceiling.

 

Numbers 24-26, the current home of the London Film School,  will become modern warehouse style offices between floors 2 and 4 while the ground and 1st floors will be an exceptional retail unit. The redevelopment will remove the front part of the 1st floor entirely to create an impressive double height space.

 

This project will be managed by Westminster Council to upgrade Long Acre and its surroundings. The pavements will be widened, signage improved, the street clutter reduced and the surfaces replaced with York stone. The Mercers' Company and Shaftesbury PLC are both making substantial financial contributions to enable this project to take place, which will produce major improvements to the public realm.

This project has been delayed awaiting confirmation of Thames Water's timetable to replace the water supply infrastructure in the area. Thames Water commenced work in early October 2007 and it is anticipated that completion of the project will be mid-2008.