2025 has been another year of great change for major developments in Central London. In the first seven months of the year Westminster City Council has approved a huge office block next to Harrods despite concerns workers will be able to peer into bedrooms, while 144 new homes and adult social care flats on Harrow Road were given the green light.
The council also agreed to allow an two extra storeys and a new restaurant to be built at Vogue’s former HQ. It comes as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, shared controversial plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street, which includes drop-off points, cycle routes and a ‘world-class’ public space.
He will also have a say on when bars, clubs and pubs close in the capital thanks to sweeping new powers handed down to him by the government. Meanwhile, Transport for London is pressing ahead with plans to regulate pedicabs in London for the first time.
In June, the transport authority published a report on its consultation to regulate rickshaws in the capital showing 75 per cent of respondents did not feel safe in one.
As for planning applications that have been approved so far in 2025, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has taken a look back at some of the most significant.
New luxury London hotel in one of city’s poshest neighbourhoods
In February, Westminster City Council approved a luxury boutique hotel in Fitzrovia.
The Newman Hotel asked the council to approve a licence allowing it to run a 24/7 service for hotel residents and guests, in the hotel just off Goodge Street.
The high-end establishment, which was given building consent in 2018, also wants to operate a modern European-inspired brasserie and a cocktail bar for hotel guests and walk-ins seven days a week. The venues are tipped to run until midnight most nights, according to the licensing application.
The Newman Hotel, located at 49-57 Newman Street in Fitzrovia, is expected to have 81 rooms, including a penthouse suite with a large private terrace, and a ‘wellness area’. There will be five one-bedroom apartments accessible via a private street entrance.
Guests will be able to book ‘luxury’ event spaces like dining and meeting rooms and test out the wellness spa, which will fill an entire floor. According to the application, the spa “embraces Nordic simplicity, blending minimalism” and includes a range of heated cabins, an active salt therapy room, a hydrotherapy pool as well as a meditation studio and gym.
A CGI the building from Knightsbridge. Credit: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris/WCC. For use for all LDRS publications.
Huge Knightsbridge offices next to Harrods
In March, the council approved an 11-storey development next to Harrods. The 1 Knightsbridge Green site will offer Grade A office space to just under 2,000 workers and bring in millions of pounds worth of footfall to the area, according to the planning application.
The scheme, brought forward by Berkeley Estate Asset Management (BEAM), was narrowly approved in a two to three vote after councillors on the Planning Committee voted along party lines.
The project is expected to cost more than £100m to complete, according to BEAM’s application, and will consist of a plush ‘pocket’ garden, terraced office space and underground cycle parking. BEAM has also proposed off-site carbon savings at four schools in Westminster to mitigate the development’s own emissions and £2m in public realm improvements.
Massive new London film and music studio
In April, the council approved a “world leading” film and music centre by a firm involving legendary composer Hans Zimmer.
MVS Partnership LLP applied to turn the dated BBC Maida Vale Studios in Delaware Road into a state-of-the-art film and music production arena under one roof.
The development includes the complete removal of audio recording studios and replacing them with up to 30 composer suites, writing studios as well as general workspace. There will also be ‘breakout areas’, a kitchen and bar.
This all forms part of MVS’ vision of a building divided loosely into two zones – visual and audio – in line with the company’s distinct partnership of film and music businesses. The building is set to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
MVS is a partnership between Zimmer and his long-time business partner Steve Kofsky, and leading UK film producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
Selfridges to open private members club at flagship Oxford Street store
Selfridges will open a private members club at its flagship Oxford Street store after councillors overwhelmingly backed the proposal during a meeting in June.
The high-end retailer said the club will offer “an exclusive new shopping and social destination for its most valued customers and members” from Spring 2026. Selfridges said the club, to be called 40 Duke, will run from 8am to 12.30am Sunday to Thursday and until 1.30am on Friday and Saturday.
The club will take up staff office space and terraces on the fourth floor of the Grade II listed building to make way for an internal bar and lounge, a private dining room and an external terrace dining area for 144 people in total.
There will be a retractable roof on the fourth floor balcony and door staff will escort customers out of the building. The club will work on an invitation-only basis.
144 new homes and adult social care flats
In July, the council approved 144 new homes and adult social care flats on Harrow Road, Maida Vale.
The proposal, which is located at 291 Harrow Road and 1-2 Elmfield Way, will boost the number of adult social care homes on site from the current five to 24. It also includes 48 affordable homes and 72 units at market rate.
The council will construct these flats in three separating buildings varying from five to 15 storeys and include an indoor sports facility and commercial space, the application shows.
The development will be car-free but there will be some parking provision for adult social care users.
Responding to claims it was an “overdevelopment”, the council said though the development would be tall and bulky, it would result in “relationships to neighbouring properties seen elsewhere in the Carlton Gate development and Westminster”.
Vogue’s former HQ is set to undergo a major refurb. CGI of the proposed refurb of Vogue’s former HQ on 1 Hanover Street, London, UK.
Former Vogue HQ gets a face lift
Last month, councillors voted unanimously to allow Nautilina Limited to build two extra storeys and a new restaurant at Vogue’s former HQ in Mayfair.
Nautilina said the proposal was a “once in a generation opportunity” to build best-in-class office space as it seeks to move into the iconic 1950s building.
According to its planning application, the international real estate company is replacing the seventh floor and building a new eighth floor and rooftop plant and garden. It will bring 524sqm of additional retail space at the ground floor for a new restaurant.
The “deep retrofit” will also see 92pc of frontages on Hanover Square and St George Street kept in place.
The building is located at the south-east corner of Hanover Square and was purpose built for Vanity Fair and British Vogue founder Conde Nast in 1958. It was the fashion magazine’s headquarters until their departure in 2024 to the Adelphi Building on the Strand.
Conde Nast, the company, sold the leasehold interest of 1 Hanover Square in 2024.
Still to come
In other developments, Sadiq Khan intervened after Westminster City Council refused to approve plans for a 20-storey student accommodation block on the canal opposite Paddington station.
In a letter to the Labour-run authority, the Mayor has said that the scheme – which includes 605 student bed spaces – would make a “positive contribution towards London housing targets”.
He has informed the authority that City Hall will take control of the application and will host a public hearing at some point in the coming months to decide whether to overrule the council or allow its decision to stand.
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