Leading the herd

The regeneration of Elephant and Castle, in south-east London, is on the eve of an important milestone

Selection of the partner who will team up with Southwark Council to turn the authority’s vision into a reality is due on July 24. In most cases of regeneration landowners announce their intentions to the commercial development sector and then hand over full responsibility to the best bidder.

But rather than turn over responsibility for Elephant and Castle to the private sector, Southwark Council has determined what it wants for the area based on what it says is in residents’ best long-term interest, rather than being driven by commercial concerns.

The council has set up its own internal development team to develop a practical, sustainable vision for Elephant and Castle, one that it says builds on what is best about the area. These are “the location, the people, and the culture”. It has also taken note of what people dislike most – “the subways and the 1960s buildings”.

The vision is incorporated within a master document called the Elephant and Castle framework for development, and is a result of extensive public consultation and refinement over the past four years. Funding is still required to lift the plan off the drawing board and into action – a role that is the responsibility of the commercial partner whose role will be to bring finance, resources and capacity to the regeneration programme.

The developer will work with the council, local people and other regeneration partners over the course of the next ten years with a view to adding value with their extensive experience in creating places, as well as providing most of the finance required to undertake the infrastructural changes needed at Elephant and Castle.

Eight of the world’s biggest property developers submitted bids to partner Southwark Council on the regeneration of Elephant and Castle two years ago. As competition progressed and became more demanding, a shortlist emerged.
Now, in the third and final stage of the competition, just two companies remain – Lend Lease team – which includes Lend Lease, First Base and Oakmayne; and Key Property Investment – a joint venture between St Modwen Properties and Salhia Real Estate.

Southwark Council is now considering which organisation has the experience, rigour and technical capacity to deliver a programme of the scale required at Elephant and Castle.

The provision of social housing is an integral part of a redevelopment of this scale, and, in December, Southwark completed the architect selection process for the sixteen sites that will replace the run-down 1960s-designed Heygate Estate.

This marked the end of a cutting-edge procurement process that threw out the normal social housing design model – high volume and ‘bog standard’ – in favour of an innovative new approach – “high quality and imaginative”, according to the council.

A competition panel of sixteen small to medium-sized architectural practices was formed to create the new homes. Architects battled it out for each site and a review board consisting of the council, its housing association partners and the homes’ future tenants selected the best designs.

Richard Thomas, executive director of regeneration, said: “The range and quality of designs has been stunning, and in almost all cases it was tough to pick the best design for each site.”

Elephant and Castle project director, Chris Horn, said the architects came “without preconceptions of how social housing should look”. This meant that each of the sites had been individually approached to enrich their various locations and were not just a carbon cut-out rolled across sixteen sites, which almost certainly would have been the easier route.” The council claimed this approach to design had created ripples in the built environment sector far beyond the borders of Elephant and Castle.

Building Design magazine recently presented a ‘Best Public Housing Development of the Year’ award to the architectural team behind the Wansey Street development, De Rijke Marsh Morgan (dRMM). Successful bidders for the last five housing sites include the AOC, Haworth Tompkins, and Metaphorm Architecture and Design.
Each of the sixteen Heygate Estate replacement housing sites will be mixed-tenure with homes for social rent (about 50 percent) and the remainder for sale on the open market or available for shared ownership.

Along with this rehousing project, further plans and developments are already moving forward. London South Bank University has been given the green light for a £47m redevelopment programme. The university has received planning consent for landmark developments that will rejuvenate the campus in Elephant and Castle, bringing benefits for local residents and students alike.

Stabilisation of the Georgian terraces on London and Borough roads will be completed by late 2007. The Keyworth II and The Chapel are due for completion by the end of 2008.

Four parks in the Elephant and Castle area are currently being improved with funding provided by Cross River Partnership and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. The parks are Victory Park, Newington Gardens, Nursery Row and David Copperfield Gardens. Each will benefit from extensive landscaping, improved security, better lighting, and the introduction of benches or play areas.

In the next few years, young Elephant and Castle residents will be able to undertake their entire education, from nursery school right through to university, in educational facilities right on their doorstep.

Some £40m is being invested into a new City Academy, in Southwark, which will combine the existing Geoffrey Chaucer Technology College and Joseph Lancaster Primary School. It will offer nursery through to sixth form in new state-of-the-art facilities designed by Future Systems Architects when it opens next year.

Elephant and Castle’s infamous subways will soon be relegated to the history books. Transport for London is finalising plans to remove the subway system to the south of Elephant and Castle and to convert the southern roundabout into a T-junction, adding wide, European-style pedestrian crossings. For the first time in decades, people will be able to cross the road at street level once work is completed in early 2008.

Martha Schwartz landscape architects have drawn up plans to transform St Mary’s Churchyard into a new residential park. Work will start in April 2007 to remove grass mounds to improve visibility, making the park safer, and new children’s play equipment is to be installed. Building has begun on two major private developments in Elephant and Castle. Oakmayne Properties will build a hotel complex on Elephant Road, complete with an arts cinema and more than 200 homes, as well as a fitness centre, restaurants and shops.

Developers Multiplex and Espalier will build a 42-storey residential tower on the existing Castle House site. About 140 of the 408 flats will be affordable, and special wind turbines will help keep energy costs down. The Walworth Project is a result of three years of consultation exercises with local people who live near and work on Walworth Road. Concerns were expressed about narrow pavements, too much traffic driving too fast, dirty streets and crowded bus stops. More than 20,000 vehicles and up to 80 buses an hour navigate this route, resulting in 250 casualties over three years.

The aim of the project is to reduce the amount of collisions and personal injuries to drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists along Walworth Road.

Better traffic signals and directional signage; the introduction of a speed limit of 20mph, as well as the removal of the northbound bus lane between Merrow and Browning Streets are planned. New traffic signalling systems will be introduced to keep buses moving along this stretch of road.

Pedestrian crossings will be relocated and modernised. Street lights, guard rails, seating, rubbish bins and cycle stands will also be improved. The Walworth Project was launched in 2003. Southwark Council received £1m from the Department of Transport, and this grant has been supplemented by Transport for London. Works are expected to be completed by early spring 2008.