Hammersmith & Fulham has granted planning permission for a 291-bedroom student accommodation scheme at 1–3 Sussex Place, beside Hammersmith station.
The approved proposal would replace the existing office building with a 14-storey purpose-built student accommodation building, including a basement. It is a major redevelopment for a compact site close to one of west London’s busiest transport interchanges, rather than a conventional residential scheme for sale or rent on the open market.
The plans are for 147 cluster apartments and 144 studios, making 291 student bedrooms in total. Communal facilities, cycle parking, refuse storage, landscaping and a roof terrace form part of the approved description of the development. The project also includes a landscaped courtyard garden and a skywalk roof terrace in the on-site amenity offer.
For students, the most significant feature of the announcement is an agreement between the developer and Imperial College London. The nominations agreement is intended to give Imperial students access to more than 100 affordable beds at the scheme. The developer says 35 per cent of the accommodation would be provided at affordable rents.
That agreement gives the scheme a direct link to a major London university, with the location positioned for students travelling to Imperial’s South Kensington, White City and Hammersmith Hospital campuses. It also means the development has been presented not simply as additional student housing, but as accommodation with a defined route for a group of university students to access part of it.
A change for a site beside the station
Sussex Place sits immediately next to Hammersmith station, where several Underground lines and a large bus interchange make the area a key transport hub for west London. The consent allows the current office building to be demolished and replaced with a taller student-focused building designed by WGP Architects.
Planning records describe the application as a 14-storey building plus basement on a 0.18-hectare site. The stated proposal includes the student bedrooms and associated communal space, alongside the practical infrastructure needed for the building: cycle parking, waste storage and landscaping. The public planning material also identifies the scheme as major development.
The approval follows earlier consultation on proposals for the site. The final scheme now reported has a specific bedroom total and a formal planning consent, which marks a different stage from the earlier public discussion of a potential redevelopment.
What has been approved — and what has not yet been set out
Planning permission clears an important hurdle, but it does not itself mean the building is ready for students. No construction start date, completion date or opening date has been announced in the information published with the approval. Nor have final room rents or the detailed process by which eligible Imperial students will be nominated for the affordable beds been set out.
Those distinctions matter for local residents and prospective students. The consent establishes what can be built at the site, while the timing of demolition, construction and occupation will depend on the next steps taken by the developer. The approval also does not, by itself, determine how the building will operate day-to-day once it is occupied.
For Hammersmith & Fulham, the decision adds a substantial student-housing proposal to the area immediately around the station. Its scale, at 291 bedrooms, and its university nominations arrangement make it a notable planning decision in a part of the borough where access to public transport is a central feature of new development proposals.
The redevelopment is intended to transform an older office site into student accommodation with outdoor amenity space and a proportion of rooms described as affordable. The next public milestones will be the developer’s plans for delivery and any further details released about how the university-linked affordable places will work in practice.
