After years of discussion with planners an application to demolish and re-develop the Matalan store and car park, at the rear of Kingsland Shopping Centre, has finally been made on behalf of the owners, Criterion. The plan is for three blocks of up to 14 storeys, and one up to 12 storeys, comprising 254 flats and a mix of commercial uses and workshops on the ground and first floors. All will be crammed onto the site which is just over 9,000 square metres. Development of the remaining front part of the Kingsland Shopping Centre is presently inhibited by Crossrail2 land safeguarding and Sainsbury's long lease. It is a 'car free' development but with some vehicle spaces reserved for disabled residents and commercial uses.
You can view the application and make comments here or alternatively email planning@hackney.gov.uk putting in the subject line Ref: 2025/0167 Matalan Plc, Dalston Cross Shopping Centre E8 2LX
The planned Matalan development showing three towers set back and spread across the site's northern boundary with gaps between them. The fourth tower is opposite Springfield House on the Eastern Curve in the foreground.
Of the 254 flats, 173 will be for sale at market prices and the remainder will be "affordable" of which 36 will be "intermediate" (for shared ownership) and 45 for "low cost rent" (London affordable rent). The affordable ones amount to 35% of all habitable rooms but do not meet the official planning policy target of 50% affordable homes. 84% of the flats would be 1-bed and 2-beds and, although the planning policy target for three beds or more is 33%, only 16% would be family size flats.
Although affordable and family size homes are the greatest local needs, the owner claims in its Financially Viable Appraisal that it cannot afford to meet those targets after taking into account its right to a financial incentive as landowner for "bringing forward the development" (£2.2million) plus 20% developers profit (£25.1million) on the scheme which has a finished development value of about £155million.
Due to the curtain of existing tall buildings extending across the southern boundary of the Matalan site, and the planned development's own density, 24% of the new flats will fail to meet the British Research Establishment's ( BRE) Sunlight Exposure standard. The development will also cause some 200 "major", and numerous lesser, sunlight losses/transgressions affecting residents flats in the existing surrounding buildings. The owner argues it can't be blamed for the number of flats which will be deficient in natural light saying its site has already been blighted by the existing tall buildings which have taken an "unfair share" of the sunlight previously available. ( You can read about how that happened here. Ed)
Matalan development looking north from the Eastern Curve
The owner argues that these sunlight deficits are acceptable for a dense inner city site like Dalston and claims that the gloomy flats overlooking the enclosed north facing 'square' at Dalston Works, Martel Place, where sunlight rarely touches the ground, provide "an understanding of the local character of an area" and a "useful proxy for acceptable daylight standards in a given location".
Matalan development looking east from the Colvestone Crescent/Ridley Road junction
The towers will loom over Ridley Road street market but the owner says of the market shoppers "Their susceptibility is judged to be Low. Their sensitivity is therefore Low." (ie They wont really notice or care. Ed.) The owner has also undertaken a number of tests of the potential overshadowing of the Ridley Road street market and concluded that it will receive 240 minutes of sunlight across "much of its area" and that it will "comfortably meet the BRE Guidelines". Whilst this sounds reassuring, the BRE Guidelines set a very low minimum requirement for open spaces, namely an annual average of only 2 hours direct sunlight daily over 50% of their area. The developer provides no detail of the sunlight which will be lost to the street market or of the areas where it will be retained.
The developer's illustration of the equinox sunpath, which represents the average level of annual sunlight obstruction, concludes that "although there will inevitably be some overshadowing of the market...a significant amount of direct sunlight will continue to reach the market space around the equinox and summer solstice".
As for landscaping on the Matalan site, the owner has adopted Hackney's request for greater "east/west pedestrian permeability", but unfortunately there will be no direct route out west to get to Kingsland Station when the shopping mall closes from10pm < 8am (from 5pm < 11am on Sundays) -so residents will have to walk a long way around to get there. Designs also adopt a "streets and yards" approach and it is claimed that the open spaces will have "verdant" gardens and "nature trails". However about 75% of all of the "green" spaces and children's playgrounds will be on a residents-only 2nd floor raised concrete podium and others on 7th to 12th storey rooftops.
The developer acknowledges that, at ground level, the public spaces as a whole fail to meet even the BRE minimum guideline for sunlight on open spaces - ie less than half the area will receive 2 hours direct sunlight daily on average annually. These levels of sunlight are wholly inadequate for the planned green spaces, meeting places and children's playgrounds which are essential to a large residential development expected to have some 450 residents and 100 children.
Criterion critcises Hackney Council for its year on year failures to meet its official annual targets for new homes - between 2019 and 2023 it says Hackney should have built 5,320 homes but only built 3,519. It points out that its proposed development of 254 new flats would contribute significantly to meeting the current shortage of homes. Hackney's recently approved the Dalston Supplementary Planning Document which recognises Matalan as a development opportunity site for taller buildings - in fact the final version was drafted by Hackney planners in the context of their design discussions with Matalan's owner. Criterion's scheme is likely to be recommended for approval subject to any further improvements which can be negotiated.
You can view the application and make comments here or alternatively email planning@hackney.gov.uk and put in the subject line Ref: 2025/0167 Matalan Plc, Dalston Cross Shopping Centre
PS If there are any sustainable energy, whole life-cycle carbon, circular economy or fire/flood risk experts out there, please have a look at the owner's consultant's reports. We will publish here all informative and helpful comments made.
(Errrr....I fear the Matalan development is probably already a done deal. Ed.)
