Green light given for £400m building in the City adjacent to Leadenhall Market, which featured in Harry Potter films

A £400m skyscraper has been given the green light by City of London planners and will be built next to the historic Leadenhall Market, which featured in the Harry Potter films.

The 182.7-metre (600ft), 36-storey building, named 1 Leadenhall for its location, is one of a host of new towers going up in London’s financial district.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest 1 Leadenhall pictured next to the historic Grade II-listed Leadenhall Market in the City of London. Photograph: Handout

It will be dwarfed by 1 Undershaft, a 73-storey skyscraper nicknamed the Trellis that will be the second-tallest building in western Europe after the Shard, at just under 300 metres. Also in the works is the 255-metre 22 Bishopsgate, the reworked Pinnacle.

The developer behind 1 Leadenhall is Canadian group Brookfield Property Partners, which is also building an office block at 100 Bishopsgate and other projects in the City.

Designed by the former Foster + Partners architect Ken Shuttleworth’s Make practice, 1 Leadenhall will have 540,000 sq ft of office space, as well as 50,000 sq ft of shops and cafes on the ground, first and second floors. A public terrace will overlook the roof of the adjacent Grade II-listed Victorian market. Construction is due to start next year and the building is expected to open in 2021.

1 Leadenhall, which will replace a 1970s seven-storey office block, has faced strong criticism from conservation charities Historic Royal Palaces and the Victorian Society. The latter has described the planned skyscraper as a “glass lump”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest 1 Leadenhall, centre, joins the cluster of towers in the Square Mile. Photograph: Handout

Alex Bowring, a conservation adviser for the Victorian Society, said: “We are extremely disappointed by this news. We have objected to these plans as we feel a skyscraper is not appropriate for the site … The proposed skyscraper would mark an absolute break in the skyline and therefore significantly harm the streetscape and leave the lively Leadenhall Market looking like a lost relic.”

But Martin Jepson, who runs Brookfield’s UK office division, said: “1 Leadenhall is a carefully considered design that will complement the architecture of the surrounding buildings and embraces the heritage of its unique setting.”