A series of high-rise and mid-rise buildings have been approved in Boris Johnson鈥檚 first planning meeting as mayor of London, despite his self-confessed antipathy to towers.

A 45-floor tower in London鈥檚 Docklands, an 18-floor building on Lambeth Palace Road and a 15-storey building in Croydon were among the first buildings to be reviewed by Johnson鈥檚 office.

The approvals came despite Johnson鈥檚 desire to reduce the number of tall buildings built in the capital, especially those in otherwise low-rise areas.

黑洞社区 has seen a schedule of the meeting, which took place on 14 May, listing the first schemes reviewed by the mayor鈥檚 office. Johnson did not take up the option to interfere in any, leaving them for the local planning authority to decide.

It is understood the mayor himself was not present at the meeting, with the decisions made by Ian Clements, a deputy mayor in charge of external relations.

The schemes included:

Johnson did not take up the option to interfere in any schemes

  • Park Place, a 45-floor office development by Grattan Property at Canary Wharf, designed by Horden Cherry Lee Architects
  • York House, an 18-floor office development by Delancey on Lambeth Palace Road, designed by Sheppard Robson
  • A 15-storey development by Terrace Hill in Croydon, designed by Sheppard Robson
  • British Land鈥檚 North East Quadrant near Euston, designed by Wilkinson Eyre.

The mayor鈥檚 office was due to review more schemes yesterday.

The office is due to publish a 鈥渄irection of travel鈥� for planning in the next fortnight, devised by Sir Simon Milton, its chief planning adviser. It will outline proposed changes to the London Plan, including widened viewing corridors, open spaces protection and the dropping of the 50% affordable housing obligation.

But planning experts have warned that changing viewing corridor proposals could take up to three years, as planning technology has moved on since they were published.

A planning source said: 鈥淏oris wants to go back to the viewing corridors set up in 1993, when local authorities didn鈥檛 even have computerised geographical information systems. The whole lot will have to be torn up and done again, and there are a lot of corridors.鈥�