Elizabeth Borowiecka of the Camberwell Society’s Planning Committee reports on the much contested application for the Mission Care building on Love Walk
In February 2023, Mission Care—a charity providing care for vulnerable adults since 1904— submitted a planning application to rebuild its care home at 10 Love Walk. The application described a “home from home” for residents, domestic in scale, with bedrooms grouped in “household” arrangements and secure access to garden space. But in practice, the proposed design raised concern for being far more institutional than intended. The kitchen and dining room were placed only on the ground floor. Two-thirds of bedrooms opened onto internal corridors. Garden space was limited and largely inaccessible. There were no facilities for staff or residents to make tea or welcome visitors.
The building was also proposed as four storeys high and built right up to the pavement edge—unlike the mostly two storey, set-back houses along Love Walk. Planning permission was granted in July 2023 by Southwark Council’s Major Applications and New Homes Committee. However, it later emerged that Historic England, a statutory
consultee, had not been consulted prior to the decision. resulting in harm to the significance of the adjacent Conservation Area.” They added that much of the harm arose from the scale of the building.
The Council’s Team Leader for Major Applications responded: “Historic England have raised no objection to the proposed development; therefore we will be proceeding to complete the Section 106 legal agreement on the planning application.” That agreement was finalised on 14 November 2023.
In response, local resident Isobel Bennett launched an application for Judicial Review, with expert input from Pollard Thomas Edwards on care home design and Donald Insall Associates on planning and conservation. On 20 February 2024, the High Court granted permission, ruling that Southwark Council had acted unlawfully in not presenting Historic England’s comments to the planning committee.
When finally consulted, Historic England stated: “The proposals do not appear to represent a successful contextual design or sympathetic response to local character, The Council chose not to contest the case and instead invited a new application. The original permission was quashed. The revised plans, validated in February 2024, included some changes: the height reduced to three storeys, dining rooms placed on each floor, and larger bedrooms. Yet the overall impression, the Society’s Planning Committee believes, remains institutional rather than domestic
