Archway challenge falls flat

摘要

A north London council has lost a legal challenge to stop the landmark Archway Tower from being turned into flats. Developer Essential Living, which is backed by US investors, wants to turn the empty 16-storey building into 100 flats which it will rent out. It has hired Grid Architects, the firm set up by former Hamiltons director Craig Casci, to carry out the work. But Islington council began legal action last summer for a judicial review into new office to residential conversion rules which were passed under the government's permitted development rights policy.