A cluster of towers planned for the bankside area is likely to go ahead after one of the developers committed to the plans.

Bankside Yard, near Blackfriars Bridge is a £1.3 billion redevelopment of the former Sampson and Ludgate House site for a mixed-use project by a consortium of partners including Native Land, Temasek, HPL and Amcorp Properties.

The development was previously approved by Southwark Council for nine buildings, including a series of towers, the highest of which will reach 49 storeys, most of the space being allocated for offices, and 600 homes.

The site is currently being cleared, but used to be occupied by Sampson House, a 1970s brutalist building and Ludgate House, a rather less interesting office block. Being two long blocks that ran on either side of the railway, they acted as impenetrable barriers between the river and Southwark Street, leaving just the riverside path open.

Apart from the tall glass towers, the redevelopment will see 14 of the currently sealed off railway arches opened up again, which the developers say will improve pedestrian routes between Bankside and the South Bank.

The developer is giving £65 million to Southwark Council to deliver affordable housing elsewhere in the borough, although that has been criticized as insufficient to meet the costs of building sufficient new council homes to meet the minimum usually required for a development of this size.

The entire project has planning consent, granted in 2014, for 1.4 million sq ft of mixed-use development. Native Land recently made a planning application to amend proposals for the second phase of the development, known as Eastern Yards, to include a hotel and on-site affordable and private homes.

All images by the developer.