COMMUNITY CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after plans for a 20-storey controversial proposed tower block were withdrawn by the developer.
The Hondo Tower was accused of representing “ethnic cleansing” in the iconic neighbourhood.
Developers at Hondo Enterprises formally withdrew their planning application for the office tower just three days before a long-awaited hearing at City Hall that would make a final decision on whether to approve the building.
Taylor McWilliams, a Texan millionaire, owns the company that first wanted to build the tower in Brixton which has an ethnically diverse area and stronghold of Caribbean residents since the Windrush generation’s arrival.
On Monday, Honda Enterprises said delays to the project would make it difficult for the construction of the building to go ahead.
Fight the Tower, a local campaign group, was behind a three-year long lobbying effort to stop the tower from being built.
The Voice supported the campaign, and in December 2021 reported that Black communities were being driven out of Brixton due to gentrification.
Joe Cole, a member of the group, told The Voice: “I’ve engaged in conversation with a woman who owns an Eritrean cafe on Station Road, and she said that once Pop Brixton moved in, it’s become a box park of high end, bougie businesses with majority white clientele.
“She said that once Pop Brixton moved in, the police repression on Station Road increased dramatically to the extent that the police were harassing Eritrean men who were having their coffee in the cafe.
“It’s ethnic cleansing happening in a modern context where people are getting forced out because the land that they own can be used for more profitable uses.”
In March, the Greater London Authority (GLA) was also revealed to be opposed to the high-rise tower and recommended that “the public benefits and areas of compliance with the Development Plan do not outweigh the harms and policy conflicts identified”.
In Freedom of Information requests obtained by the campaigners, they uncovered that City Hall would have likely recommended that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, reject the construction of the tower in what campaigners dubbed a “floundering application”.
In a report prepared by GLA members, it said that approving the 20-storey tower would “harm the character and appearance of the area,” because of its height, scale and mass and would breach London’s tall building policy.
The report also said that the building would cause sustainability issues and “heritage harm” to the area despite the promise of thousands of new jobs being created.
Following the victorious news, the group wrote on Twitter: “TAYLOR TOWER HAS FALLEN!! In the face of 3 years of community campaigning and resistance- Taylor McWilliams has WITHDRAWN application on his office block! More to come tomorrow, but tonight celebrate a victory of local people over 1 millionaire landlord.”
In a letter written on behalf of Hondo Enterprises to City Hall, it read: “Unfortunately, the very long period of gestation over the past two years has had a profound impact on the ability to deliver this much needed jobs and skills boost in Brixton and in particular the Windrush ward.
“We are now in the position where the applicant needs to reconsider its position and can only do this by withdrawing the application.”
Hondo Enterprise said they would present a “revised approach” soon that would “deliver lasting benefits for Brixton’s businesses and residents”.
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Brixton’s Fight the Tower campaign boosted by City Hall criticism of development
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A small but welcomed victory over Hondo Enterprise, for the African, and African-Caribbean of Brixton.
However, gentrification: which in real terms mean the elimination of African, and African-Caribbean people from Brixton, has become a war of attrition-which the “developers” who enjoy the support of the Local Labour-controlled Authority, are posed to be victorious.