First look: the £3bn Chelsea Barracks development

The troubled £3 billion development of Chelsea Barracks is finally back on track a year after it was put on hold.

Middle East firm Qatari Diar have pressed the button on London’s biggest luxury property scheme — 448 homes in blocks up to eight storeys high on a “super-prime” 13-acre site. Major work is likely to begin next year.

It comes almost five years after an intervention by Prince Charles scuppered the original proposal from Lord Rogers, and 12 months after the updated scheme stalled because of concerns about the world economy.

Westminster council, which had been promised 120-plus affordable homes and a £78 million cash contribution, put huge pressure on the developers to start work and there was speculation that Qatari Diar would sell the site.

But today the Standard can reveal the first detailed images of the initial phase of the project, created by architects Squire & Partners ahead of a planning application in January and a public consultation. It includes three blocks of townhouses, promenade gardens by landscape architect Kim Wilkie, and the conversion of a guards’ chapel into a community facility surrounded by shops. The 154-year-old chapel is the only building left on the levelled site after it was given a grade-II listing following a battle by campaigners.

The Qataris — then in partnership with Christian Candy’s CPC Group — bought the site from the Ministry of Defence for £959 million in 2007. It was Britain’s dearest residential development.

Lord Rogers designed a series of modernist towers but was removed from the project in 2009 after Prince Charles wrote to Qatar’s prime minister objecting to the designs, saying they “made my heart sink”.

Mr Candy sued the Emirate for more than £60 million for breach of contract, and there was a suggestion the Emir and Prince Charles would be called to give evidence.

The case was settled for a lower sum, the judge calling Charles’s involvement “unexpected and unwelcome”. Outline planning consent exists. Detailed consent for the first phase is expected to be awarded in three stages. Westminster said: “We understand building will commence in 2014.”