The artist's impressions look idyllic. Shoppers, residents, and workers stroll through a sunlit courtyard outside shops, flats, offices, and bars in a brand-new £800 million development in the heart of Shoreditch, east London.



It's a vision of 21st-century London: modern, purpose-built high-density housing designed for people who want to work either in the City, London's all-conquering financial district, or in so-called Tech City, the nearby cluster of digital startups and outposts of American technology giants.

The developers – it's a joint venture by firms Hammerson and Ballymore – compare the Bishopsgate Goodsyard (BGY) scheme to the Barbican, the central London housing estate famous for its residential towers and theatre.

But BGY is more than just a building project: For the long list of groups opposed to the scheme – which is still stuck in the planning stage and waiting for approval after being rejected by two local authorities – this is a battleground for the area's future.

If approved, just 10% of the scheme's homes would be classed as affordable, in an area where the need for social housing is critical and flats regularly cost upwards of £1 million.

And the project's fate is now in doubt: A meeting at which London's mayor, Boris Johnson, would decide its future was planned for next week but has been postponed, apparently at the developers' request. With only a few days left of Johnson's reign in City Hall, his successor will have to deal with it.

It's a blow for the scheme and a victory for campaigners, but BGY has not been defeated yet.



But why are people so opposed to this project? And with more than 400 new buildings of over 20 storeys currently planned for London in the coming years – many of them destined to contain luxury flats way out of reach for most Londoners – is this a landmark moment in the fight over the city's skyline?