A HOSPITAL charity has followed through with its threat of legal action after Camden Council rejected its bid to reduce the affordable housing in a redevelopment of a workhouse that may have provided the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ most famous novel.

When councillors rebuffed an application by UCLH Charity to cut the number of affordable homes in the redevelopment of the Cleveland Street workhouse from 30 to 17, they were told by the charity’s head of development Peter Burroughs that approving the plans would avoid costly legal proceedings.

Now, nearly eight months after the meeting, the charity says it will appeal the decision and take it to a planning inquiry in October.

“An appeal has been made to the Secretary of State against the decision of London borough of Camden to refuse to grant planning permission,” it said.

Camden’s planning chief Councillor Danny Beales said: “I’m not surprised but disappointed. “I think they made it clear that they were keeping open the option of an appeal and they have been quite challenging and adversarial in their approach.

“We have seen attempts like this elsewhere to water down affordable housing with 100 Avenue Road, where the developer is now having to build out the original proposal because we defended affordable housing.”

UCLH Charity applied last year to remove some of the cheaper housing, provided to allow people on lower incomes to live in one of the most expensive areas in the country, in its redevelopment of the building, known as the Middlesex Hospital Annex in Fitzrovia.

“It had blamed a changing economic environment, brought on by the pandemic, for the original version of the project not being financially viable. They also said that the discovery of more buried bodies on the site had increased costs. The building, also known as the Cleveland Street workhouse, is thought to have been the inspiration for Oliver Twist, Dickens’ enduring story of childhood poverty in Victorian London.

“Forty affordable homes were initially “guaranteed” for hospital staff who often struggle to find somewhere to live near UCLH’s site on the Euston Road. A change had lowered it to 30.

“The charity’s initial application said there was an expectation the homes “would prioritise such accommodation for nurses and junior doctors whose roles were central to emergency and urgent care and emergency planning resilience and response”.

Linus Rees, a member of the Charlotte Street Association, said: “It’s outrageous that they will be using UCLH charity money for this, it’s there to support staff and buy equipment for the hospital.

“Staff are already being forced out of accommodation in Gower Street and Cleveland Street, and this will reduce their ability to live locally, with less flats for them. No papers have been lodged with the council apart from the appeal letter, so we’re waiting to see what their grounds are.”

The application has seen dozens of objections including one from a direct descendant of Dickens himself – Lucinda Dickens-Hawksley. She had said there was an irony where a workhouse, used by the poor, was going to be turned into luxury housing.

“The fact that so little provision is being made for those in the area who really need a place to live, makes it even more infuriating,” she told the New Journal last year.

A UCLH Charity spokesperson said: “We are committed to completing the development scheme by working closely and collaboratively with Camden Council.

“We are seeking to obtain clarity from the court about the council’s planning decisions to aid us in our aim to provide affordable housing to our community.”