Guildford’s huge North Street Redevelopment could see 'top-heavy' style changes
Fresh changes to a major Surrey regeneration project have been slammed as “monolithic” and “top heavy” despite being approved.
Guildford councillors have green-lit alterations to the huge North Street redevelopment, signing off an extra storey on one of the blocks and a long list of design alterations required under new national fire-safety rules.
The decision, agreed by Guildford Borough Council’s planning committee on December 3, updates the already-approved plans for the long-awaited regeneration of land behind the Friary Centre.
The developer says the revisions are needed to comply with updated Building Regulations, including new guidance on evacuation lifts, energy efficiency and building safety.
Several blocks will now include extra evacuation lifts, floor layouts have been reshuffled, and Block E will gain an additional storey and a slightly altered footprint.
Some other blocks will be reduced in height, with revised balconies, windows and vents.
Basement parking, plant rooms, commercial units and the NHS space in Block C have also been reconfigured.
The total number of homes rises from 471 to 479.
The redevelopment covers a major stretch of land between North Street, Leapale Road, Commercial Road and part of Woodbridge Road.
It includes demolishing existing buildings and delivering a new bus station, pedestrianised streets, public squares, shops, commercial space and hundreds of new homes, along with major changes to the surrounding road network.
Despite voting the changes through, several councillors criticised the updated designs.
Cllr Joss Bigmore said the new appearance “is never going to be the most characterful development” and warned that some of the finer architectural touches that previously “persuaded people on the fence” had been lost.
He described the revisions as “value engineering” and urged the developer to “think again”.
Cllr Richard Mills OBE said the redesign represented a “significant reduction in quality”, describing the updated form as “monolithic” and “top-heavy”, weakening its contribution to Guildford’s townscape.
Planning officers, however, said the development still offers major public benefits: a modernised bus interchange, a transformed pedestrianised North Street, and hundreds of new homes in a highly sustainable town-centre location.
They acknowledged impacts including reduced sunlight for some flats and lower-than-ideal open-space contributions, but concluded the overall benefits outweigh the harms.
The North Street scheme was first approved in 2023 and revised again in April 2025 before this latest round of changes.