Failure to launch: how the Stag Brewery regeneration represents all our planning & housing woes

What would you say if you were told that a 22-acre brownfield site in London’s zone 3, well connected to overground, underground and bus services, and located on a beautiful stretch of the river Thames is going to remain undeveloped for the foreseeable future? To top it off, it has full planning consent for 1100 homes after a ten-year planning saga.

That’s what’s happening in Mortlake, SW London. Coincidentally, during the same week that the Mayor of London launched his Draft London Plan consultation with its embedded housing targets for each London borough, the owner of this 22-acre site, Singapore-based City Developments Limited decided, very quietly, to effectively mothball the site. The Mortlake Brewery Community Group updated its members on July 24^th:

“Our previous update on The Stag Brewery stated that the owners, City Developments Ltd (CDL) planned to put the site on the market for a possible sale or joint venture deal. Dartmouth Capital, who have been acting as development managers for CDL, have told us that the owners have now decided to take the site off the market. They have in effect ‘moth-balled’ development of the site”

It continued

“This is a huge disappointment for those of us who have campaigned for a sustainable development bringing the heart back to Mortlake. MBCG believes that if the Council and developers had been more responsive to plans put forward by the community, we would now be seeing the construction of a thriving mixed development with new homes and amenities, retained green space and the much needed relocation of Thomson House School. We will continue to monitor the situation, explore means of unlocking this development impasse, and keep supporters informed if anything changes. Together, we simply cannot allow this key site in the borough to lay idle.”

I asked Neli McGinty, Development Director at City Developments Limited in London, why they had dropped plans to develop the site. He responded

 “There is very little to say at the moment other than that there are no immediate plans to commence redevelopment.”

Asked to explain why, he added:

“The simple answer is financial viability, some of which relates to sweeping regulatory change and some of which is build cost inflation. Have you seen this report? The site will continue to be used for various private leases”.

One of these leases is for film production, and film & TV studio the Story Works has been a welcome neighbour, having recreated the former brewing and bottling areas of the brewery site into Victorian-era east London for the filming of A Thousand Blows, a TV series produced for Disney+. The city street scenes and the scenes on the river Thames towpath reveal two things – a film studio can create a strong sense of place in a matter of months, and the setting of the tidal Thames is breathtakingly beautiful.

I’ve written about the Stag Brewery saga several times over the last few years, marking different stages of “progress”: the mayoral call-in in 2021; a comparison with another brewery development on the other side of London (the Truman Brewery, which has also been in the news recently having gained planning approval for a data centre along with housing and commercial development); the second planning application approved by LBRuT; and a call to action based on new evidence and precedent.

I’m not the only one frustrated –knocking on doors as a candidate for Mortlake & Barnes Common in the local elections earlier this year, I felt the fatigue and anxiety local residents have about the drawn-out uncertainty of the future of the site.

There’s been very little fallout so far – no word from LBRuT, the Mayor of London, or anyone else. The silence is deafening, even for August.

In the meantime, visitors flock to Thames Bank to cool off during the prolonged summer heatwave and to sit on the riverbank, watching the rowers and wildlife while enjoying a pint at the Ship.

Is this the calm before the storm? “A thousand blows” may return in a different, localised form at the Stag Brewery later this year.

Clare Delmar

Listen to Locals

12 August 2026