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Camden council has approved two major schemes on neighbouring sites in the West End, which will see a new venue built for performance troupe Cirque du Soleil and the refurbishment of a 1980s office building.

Councillors voted to back planning officers鈥� recommendations for approval on SPPARC鈥檚 revamp of the Odeon Theatre at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue and for DSDHA鈥檚 office scheme at 125 Shaftesbury Avenue yesterday evening.

The SPPARC scheme, designed for Olympia developer Yoo Capital, will transform the site鈥檚 grade II-listed former cinema into a 鈥渨orld-class鈥� theatre space which will act as the first European base for Canadian circus producer Cirque du Soleil.

The scheme, which was substantially reworked earlier this year, will also feature a five-storey roof extension containing a luxury hotel.

Despite a warning from Historic England that the proposals would 鈥渃ause a high level of harm to the listed building which would be of a rare and serious nature鈥�, it was approved with five votes in favour, one against and one abstention.

The project team for the Odeon scheme includes planning, heritage and townscape consultant Montagu Evans, structural and civil engineer Elliott Wood, sustainability consultant Hoare Lea, landscape designer RPS Group, QS Gardiner & Theobald and transport consultant Momentum.

DSDHA鈥檚 plans for the adjacent site were drawn up for Luxembourg-based client VREF Shaftesbury Avenue, a joint venture between developers Edge and Mitsubishi Estate.

Approved unanimously by councillors, the scheme will modernise a brick-faced office block built in 1982 which is currently vacant above the ground floor.

DSDHA鈥檚 scheme has also undergone a redesign, with a new planning application being submitted in late 2024 six years after a previous set of proposals for former site owner Almacantar were approved by the council but never started.

Almacantar sold the site in 2023 to Edge and Mitsubishi Estate, which embarked on a more sustainability-focused rethink of the scheme after reviewing how office occupier expectations have changed since the pandemic.

Changes include the addition of a new light-filled atrium, the widening of a pedestrian route through the site and the retention of existing floor slabs to reduce embodied carbon emissions.

A draft construction management plan drawn up by Waterman as part of the new application proposes enabling and demolition works starting on site in August this year with construction completing in summer 2028.

Almacantar had originally considered building a 30-storey tower on the site but opted for a refurbishment of the existing building after concluding a high rise scheme would have been 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� for the area.

Edge and Mitsubishi Estate retained much of the previous scheme鈥檚 project team, including cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald, civil and structural engineer AKT II, planning consultant Gerald Eve, daylight consultant GIA and transport consultant Waterman. MEP engineer Long & Partners and lift consultant D2E were both replaced by Sweco.

Dutch developer Edge is building a new 28-storey tower at London Bridge that is being carried out by Mace while bids for its Edge Shoreditch scheme, now renamed Edge Liverpool Street, are due in shortly. The design and build job, which is worth upwards of 拢200m, is being priced by Mace, Multiplex and Sir Robert McAlpine. Mace is due to finish the 拢250m London Bridge deal next year.