A Labour peer who is the superintendent minister at Wesley’s Chapel has slammed a move by Boris Johnson which could see an 11-storey block tower over a historic burial ground.

Lord Griffiths spoke out after the Mayor of London stepped in once again in Islington to wrest power away from the Town Hall and decide on a major planning application.

Islington Council were minded to reject an application to demolish Monmouth House in City Road and erect four office buildings, two of which would be 10 and 11 storeys high, over­looking Bunhill Fields.

Conservationists claim the towers would “bully” and “overwhelm” the Grade I-listed burial ground, which is the final resting place of poet William Blake and writer Daniel Defoe and has 75 listed graves within its boundary.



The graveyard was established in the 1660s near the site of an even older burial ground. It became a well-known resting place for Nonconformists, and contains the graves of writer and preacher John Bunyan, and Susanna Wesley, the mother of Methodist founder John Wesley.

Lord Griffiths, whose chapel sits opposite the graveyard, told the ­Tribune: “I think it is very bad that Boris is taking power away from local planners in this way. It looks as though this is going to be imposed upon us.”

Mr Johnson has twice before intervened in Islington planning matters. He rubber-stamped plans for the Mount Pleasant and City Forum sites despite the council objecting due to lack of social housing.

He set out his decision to intervene and “act as the local planning authority” for the application in a letter to Islington Council.

It states that failure to promote development on sites such as this “could potentially impact upon the economic health of…London as a whole”.

The Town Hall’s housing and development chief, Cllr James Murray, said: “Once again the Mayor has ignored local decision-making for a major planning application.

“He has also disregarded our concerns that the applicants have not provided the evidence needed to properly assess how this proposal will affect local residents.”

Lord Griffiths said he felt his church was in the middle of a building site – with constant development from Old Street at one end of City Road, and Crossrail at the other. “We have the traffic, dirt and noise from construction but get no benefit,” he said. “How much more can we take?”

He added: “The chapel, the graveyard and Artillery House are the only institutions that speak to an older time than this age of concrete and glass we are living in now.

“We have a fatigue and general cynicism about the drive to make yet more money and wealth.

“William Blake spoke about the dark satanic mills – well now it is the glass and concrete jungle. I will sing Jerusalem from the rooftops!”

The Ancient Monument Society and the Blake Society have also objected to the plans.

The application is due to be considered by the Mayor at a hearing at City Hall on Monday.

A spokesman for the Mayor said there was a “critical need” for new work space for the hundreds of thousands of new jobs that will be created over the next 20 years in the capital.

“The Mayor has called in this application to carry out a more detailed assessment of plans that propose to increase office space, and he will consider all of the plan­ning issues as well as address­ing any other concerns raised before making a decision,” the spokesman added.

• Keywords
  BURIAL GROUNDS, OFFICE BUILDINGS
• Geographical keyword
  CITY ROAD, BUNHILL ROW
• Persons keyword
  Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, Boris Johnson