Piercy & Co scheme is part of wider redevelopment which market authorities say will “trigger a Camden renaissance”
Camden council has approved plans by Piercy & Co to erect a 40m-high ferris wheel in Camden Lock Market for a period of five years.
The council’s planning committee voted seven to two in favour to approve the attraction, which applicant Camden Lock Markets Ltd said aims to make the historic area more “relevant”.
The scheme, which is subject to final approval by the mayor of London, would see market stalls in the West Yard, opposite the pedestrian bridge which crosses Regent’s Canal, cleared to make way for the ferris wheel.
It is part of a wider redevelopment which includes opening part of the market known as Dead Dog Basin, a covered water space for canal boats, to the public for the first time. The East Vaults, located underneath the grade II-listed Interchange Warehouse, will also house new gallery and exhibition space.
Camden Lock Market said the scheme aims to “trigger a Camden renaissance, moving away from the current local perception that Camden has faded from its former glory by updating and improving the offer for the modern customer”.
It said the ferris wheel will be “sensitively designed” to evoke Camden’s heritage and painted black in reference to the area’s Victorian steel work, with the ride aiming to “capture the imagination of a wider and diversified audience”.
The project team includes planning consultant Gerald Eve, structural engineer Walsh, heritage consultant Turley and sustainability and access consultant Arup.
Piercy & Co has been working up plans for a refresh of the market for nearly a decade. A 2016 consent for proposals by the practice, which has since lapsed, would have seen the demolition of the market’s timber pavilion building and other structures and the construction of a new five-storey building in the Middle Yard.
The new application has been designed to align with the latest version of the London Plan and aims to realise the 2016 proposals as closely as possible.
It comprises the first of three planned phases for the redevelopment, with the second and third phases expected to involve the redevelopment of the Market Hall building with a new canopy and the Middle Yard buildings.
Historic England welcomed the proposals for Dead Dog Basin and Interchange Warehouse but warned the ferris wheel would impact the significance of surrounding heritage assets during its five-year existence.
“This is due to its height, bulk, scale and design, which is in clear contrast to the solidity of the surrounding industrial architecture and through the incorporation of movement,” the group said.
It also said it was “entirely possible” that a future application could extend the wheel’s consent or make it permanent, especially given its size and likely cost of construction.
Camden’s planning officers insisted the impact of the ride would be on the “lower end of the scale” of less than substantial.
The markets at Camden Lock originally sprung up in the 1970s and continued to grow after plans to demolish the buildings to make way for a motorway were scrapped.
It is now a sprawling 6.2-acre complex and London’s fourth most visited tourist site, although retail across the capital has declined by 2% since 2012 while experience-focused attractions have grown by 25%.
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