Deputy Mayor blasts Candy Brothers’ plans

Embarrassment at the London Mayor’s office where one of Boris Johnson’s deputies, Kit Malthouse, has lashed out at plans to develop the Chelsea Barracks, calling the designs “anodyne, commonplace and potentially a plutocratic slum”. The site - 12.8 acres of prime real estate in central London - was bought up last year by British property magnates Nick and Christian Candy and the Qatari royal family at a price of £1bn. The trouble is the architect who drew up the plans for 1,500 homes (include 638 luxury flats) is Lord [Richard] Rogers, who works as Johnson’s architectural advisor.

This has not stopped Malthouse digging the knife in, telling the Estates Gazette that the plans include “the worst aspects of housing design over the past 50 years” - and that the motivating force behind the development is purely profit. “There is nothing on a human scale,” he said, “and the ‘affordable’ homes look like the worst Eastern European blocks.”

This isn’t the first time the Candy Brothers’ plans for the barracks have come under fire. The Duke of Westminster called them “monotonous, repetitive and totally out of scale and out of context”. The Duke is joined by other high-profile names: both Bryan Ferry and Rupert Everett have voiced concerns about the plans.

For their part the Candy Brothers remain unrepentant. “Our design has been honed over the past 12 months after continued consultation with all local stakeholders and Westminster city council offers,” said Nick Candy.