A plan to build a block of flats next to a grade II-listed restaurant, with the previous design denounced as resembling “a pair of goggles” has been resubmitted.
Developers were seeking permission to turn Wanstead’s The British Queen restaurant into two two-bedroom flats and build another block of eight next door in the current car park.
The building was converted to a restaurant from a pub in 2010 after being empty for six months.
At the meeting earlier this year, Chadwell ward Labour councillor Anne Sachs denounced the design as resembling a “pair of goggles” and said it was “absolutely obtrusive”.
But now Rivington Street Studio has submitted a fresh application with a different design that it believes fits in better with the street scene, incorporating bricks.
It said: “Current proposals are substantially similar to those previously submitted earlier this year.
“However, in order to address concerns voiced by committee members, the elevations of the new-build element have been redesigned to address the street scene in a different way.
“In lieu of the previous elegant, floating principal volume, the building now manifests as a more traditional and weighty composition, firmly anchored to the ground.
“The street elevation is strongly symmetrical.
“The main volume of red brick is layered behind render frames, which reinterpret the bay window rhythm of traditional semi-detached housing typical of this type of suburban location.
“The small top storey is set well back, and detailed in lightweight materials, to reduce its visual mass.
“Material choices are derived from and intended to harmonise with adjacent buildings.
“Red facing brick for the main elevations was chosen to rhyme with that of the existing pub building and houses facing the site.
“The white render for the projecting balcony bays is intended to echo the rendered facades of Mapperley House next door and render panels of the pub.”