Apple bas been accused of a lot of things. Being too secretive. Pandering to an obsessive fan base. But until now it’s never been accused of blocking out the sun.
That at least is the complaint of local residents close to a planned new Apple store in central London, who claim the store will rob them of their access to the sky. For those of you unacquainted with ancient English laws, this can actually be a legal planning objection to new buildings.
The City of London owns the land in London’s financial district, where currently there is no Apple store, but plenty of iPhone-toting City workers. It’s asking for approval to override laws regarding blocking sunlight to get the Apple store through the planning stage and in to reality.
Reuters reports that the planning application covers with a proposed 10-storey development 87,000 square feet of offices and 13,000 square feet of retail – plenty of space for a big Apple store. U.S. developer Hines is in talks to buy the site for under £25 million.
In a report to its own transport and policy committees the City of London argues the building will bring economic benefits to the area.
It neglects to mention that this is the wealthiest area of the whole of London, so a bit of extra cash is not going to make that much difference…