Lambeth Council has approved plans for an enormous 20-storey speculative office block to be constructed directly above Brixton Market and right next to the Brixton Conservation Area, a place which has national significance to the history of black British culture. The developer, known as AG Hondo Popes Road BV, is Texan multi-millionaire Taylor McWilliams (sole director of Hondo Enterprises), backed by 38-billion-dollar New York-based hedge fund Angelo Gordon. Hondo Enterprises already owns Brixton's two covered markets, Granville Arcade and Market Row, and the former Club 414 on Coldharbour Lane.

Despite huge community opposition, a severe lack of community consultation, the fact that the tower contradicts both borough-wide and London-wide development plan policy, and a lack of established local demand for the proposed office space – and despite strong objections from Historic England, local MP Helen Hayes, and Coldharbour councillors Scarlett O'Hara and Emma Nye – the Lambeth Council Planning Applications Committee approved the tower by the narrowest margin (4 votes to 3) at an online meeting on 3 November 2020.

Although Lambeth Council recently declared a climate emergency, the sheer bulk and form of the building would be inherently energy inefficient. 

The tower would dwarf and undermine the neighbouring buildings, businesses and markets that make Brixton such a unique place.

And these are just some of the reasons why this development must be stopped.

The decision can still be overturned: via separate appeals to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government – and by further legal action

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