News

The Bromley by Bow Gasworks site in east London comprises seven disused Grade II listed gasholders.

Under plans drawn up by architect RSHP, these will be restored to incorporate many of the new homes within the cast iron structures.

The remaining homes will be built in higher rise surrounding cylindrical buildings echoing the gas holder homes.

St William’s ambitious scheme will involve a hefty upfront investment with the cost of temporary disassembly and restoration of the seven listed gasholders put at £80m alone.

This is before largely unquantifiable decontamination, enabling and ground remediation costs on the 9 hectare site.

Structural steel engineering specialists Craddys and Shepley have been closely involved in drawing up plans to reuse the cast iron gas holder structures, built between 1870 and 1882 for a cost of £300,000.

Both firms were previously involved in the project to dismantle, refurbish and re-erect the Gasholder No.8 guide frame at Kings Cross as well as the refurbishment and re-erection of the Kings Cross Triplets Gasholders.

St William has submitted a hybrid planning application for the site, which also include the remains of two gas holders destroyed by the Luftwaffe in the second World War.

These will turned into a central circular lake and a community space covered with one of the gas holder iron frames.

The proposed new neighbourhood will provide over 2,500 homes, of which at least 500 will be affordable, plus two parks and a local high street with a reinstated, historic canal basin at its heart.

Plans also include over 90,000 sq ft of shops, cafes and restaurants as well as a new 130,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s Supermarket.

The 19-acre site is one of the largest remaining brownfield sites in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A large proportion of the site has been closed off to the public for over 40 years as a former gasworks site.

The former gas works site on the Grand Union Canal has most recently been occupied by a scrap metal processing facility

If planning is successful, the 11-year construction programme is estimated to start in 2025. The first homes will be delivered in 2030, along with the new Sainsbury’s store and the neighbourhood centre around the restored canal basin.

New Sainsbury’s Store will be the gateway to the Kensal Canalside scheme

Architect FaulknerBrowns has shaped the masterplan over the last three years, in close consultation with the local community.

Two public parks and inclusive play spaces form part of the proposals.

A comprehensive sustainability strategy aims to maximise renewable generation and green infrastructure to produce zero emissions on site.

John Mulryan, Group Managing Director, Ballymore, said: “Kensal Canalside is one of the last remaining major brownfield sites to be developed in London and the largest in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

“The scale and location of the site – in one of London’s 48 Opportunity Areas – presents a real opportunity to create a thoughtfully designed, accessible and sustainable canalside neighbourhood with strong transport links.

This morning the house builder revealed it had aside around £31m to remediate what was described as an isolated design issue with the unnamed Greenwich building’s reinforced concrete frame.

The firm said it intended to seek recoveries from the firms involved in the scheme.

Bellway said it was carrying out a review of other buildings constructed by the same third parties responsible for the design of the frame. 

And to date, no other similar design issues with reinforced concrete frames have been unearthed. 

The latest problem building takes the amount Bellway has set aside for legacy buildings in England, Scotland and Wales since 2017 to £613m.

On this sum, there is still a remaining provision of £508m to be drawn down.

The firm is now ramping up legacy building retrofit works after signing the Government’s self-remediation contract.

In the present year ahead, Bellway expects to spend up to £80m on building safety works compared with £33m in 2022.

Bellway’s dedicated Building Safety division has so far completed nine developments.

Further works are underway on a dozen other schemes and works are due to commence on a further two developments before the end of this year.

The latest legacy job problem was revealed as the volume house builder revealed underlying pre-tax profit for the year to July 2023 had slipped 18% to £533m on revenue down just 4% to £3.4bn.

Despite the present market challenges, Bellway remained resilient with completions sliding by just 2% to 10,945 homes.

Underlying operating margin dipped to 16% (2022 – 18.5%), with the reduction mainly reflecting the effect of build cost and overhead inflation, extended site durations because of slower reservation rates and the increased use of targeted selling incentives.

The firm said it would now be delivering more timber frame homes going forward at it sought to contain cost inflation.

Despite the resilient performance Bellway finance director Keith Adey confirmed a round of job cuts with 150 roles going from the 3,000 strong workforce.

Adey said: “Given the uncertain outlook, we have conducted a review of overheads during the year and continued with a freeze on recruitment. 

“Two operating divisions have also been closed as part of our wider workforce planning, and it is anticipated that this difficult decision will result in a headcount reduction across the group of around 5%.”

The plans for Zone G, located off Redriff Road and across a portion of the Surrey Quays Leisure Park, is designed by architect Maccreanor Lavington.

There will be five residential buildings delivering a 42% affordable provision.

Main residential tower next to new park

The new park will be located across a portion of Surrey Quays Leisure Park and part of the car park of the former Printworks building.

Architects Townshend designed the park which also includes a café pavilion and an adventure play space.

The pavilion building was designed by Peckham-based design studio Feix & Merlin, and the play space has been conceived by internationally renowned Dutch studio Carve.

Tesco supermarket with underground parking

Phil Tait, Director of Development for Canada Water at British Land said: “The vision for Canada Water is to deliver a new town centre, connected with the local community; a place where everyone living, working, and studying in the local area truly belongs and can access the opportunities that it will bring, sharing in its success.

“Zone G and the park will bring new green space for all to enjoy, along with homes, shops, cafés and public amenities that will all add to what Canada Water has to offer.”

Developer Art-Invest Real Estate is looking to transform the 4.5-acre site into Canada Water Dockside – a new workspace hub offering  Grade A, sustainability-led buildings with new places to eat, drink and relax fronting the water’s edge, surrounded by 130 acres of open green space.

The reserved matters applications approved by Southwark include the detailed plans for two commercially-led buildings designed by architects, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and HWKN Architecture and new public realm from Townshend Landscape Architects.

Canada Water Dockside will offer flexible and future-focussed workspace for up to 10,000 people marking a departure from the traditional office.

Designed by HWKN, A2 will be the first building brought forward comprising 240, 000 sq ft of space across 11 storeys.

Designed by the scheme’s masterplanner, BIG and located on the waterfront, A1 at 24 storeys with its distinctive tiered form will become a landmark building at Canada Water.

Ali Abbas, Managing Director, Art-Invest Real Estate UK, said: “Canada Water Dockside is an incredibly special project for us. Our vision for the scheme always went beyond delivering world class office buildings; we wanted to create a commercial hub rooted in health, wellness and community to complement our location at the heart of the new town centre.

“Canada Water Dockside being so well connected to the City, east London, and central London with Bond Street just ten minutes away will shift the focus of London’s workspace offer.

“We look forward to continuing to work with all our partners to bring forward this new and exciting place to work, relax and play beside the revitalised historic dock.”

The landmark transformation project has been designed Kohn Pedersen Fox for 99 City Road and will provide 700,000 sq ft of space for tech clients.

The site is presently the headquarters of satellite communications group Inmarsat, which is planning to vacate the existing 1980s office building at the site.

This building will be partially demolished with around 60% of the existing building structure retained to reduce concrete use and shorten the construction programme.

A new core will be inserted and additional floors added to create a hybrid old/new structure.

The planned replacement tower will rise to around 160m and widen the pedestrian area around the site. It will also introduce green terraces and a winter garden at street level.

Jonathan Fletcher, CEO, Endurance Land, said: “The redevelopment will deliver a landmark, Net Zero scheme that’s tailored to Islington and Old Street, drastically improve the building’s sustainability credentials, offer generous community benefits, and unlock the potential of the site.

“It’s an incredible achievement to design a tower of this calibre. We are delighted to have been granted a resolution for planning approval.”

The plans significantly improve the public realm through the provision of a generous new public square and widening of pedestrian pinch points.

John Bushell, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates: “From the earliest stages of the design process we were looking for the best way to retain as much of the existing structure as possible, to improve the public realm, and to create a landmark building for London’s Tech City on this important site.

“The project delivers much-needed office space to suit different occupiers’ budgets, alongside many benefits to the wider community.”

The Wembley Greenaway 20-storey tower will open up the railway lands parallel to High Road, Wembley for the first time, and will provide safe and inclusive green space in the area.

The proposed scheme has been designed by architect JTP.

Planned high-rise schemes along Wembley High Road with Wembley Greenaway towers (pictured centre)

It is Regal London’s second PBSA development in the borough, and its fifth in London, following The Society – also on High Road Wembley, Devonshire Place in Southwark (currently in planning) and proposed developments on Chalk Farm Road in Camden and Orchard Wharf opposite the 02 Arena in Greenwich.

Subject to successful planning, work could start on the Wembley project in summer 2024.

Paul Eden, co-founder of Regal London said: “There is clear demand for high quality purpose-built student accommodation in London – well located, with good sustainability credentials and a thoughtful approach to design and wellbeing.

“We hope to be able to deliver this for High Road, Wembley and to continue working closely with our local neighbours in the area.”

The self-storage developer plans to build a part five and part eight-storey building at 60-70 & 100 The Highway and 110 Pennington Street, containing 114 homes with 44 affordable.

The Highway project is expected to cost £36m to build.

Plans were originally rejected by London’s Tower Hamlet’s council because of concerns about the noise from new premises, included in the overall scheme, for a fetish night club known as the Torture Graden which would be licensed to open until 7.30am.

Demolition of the existing buildings on the self storage site will commence shortly, and when construction of the new store is completed the existing temporary store (31,000 sq ft) will be closed and the customers transferred.

A main contractor has not been named but McLaren Construction has delivered a host of Big Yellow projects.

 Jim Gibson CEO, said: “This is an important planning consent that has been secured in a strategic and rare central London location that we are confident will deliver a meaningful contribution to our revenue and earnings in due course.”