Landowner Aviva Investors, in conjunction with leading London developer Galliard Homes, has received a Resolution to Grant planning permission from Southwark Council for their proposals to regenerate the Cantium Retail Park into a new £600m (Gross Development Value) mixed-use destination for the Old Kent Road, including a landmark 48-storey (525 ft/160m) residential tower, which will become the fourth tallest residential tower in London once complete.
Situated at 520 Old Kent Road, the 1.9-hectare (five acre) Cantium Retail Park will be redeveloped to provide a series of striking new buildings ranging from three to 48-storeys, designed around a new public square, pedestrian boulevards, piazzas and landscaped areas, fronting onto a new linear park.
The project has been designed by two award-winning local Southwark architectural practices. The landmark residential tower has been designed by Cecile Brisac and Edgar Gonzalez of Brisac Gonzalez while the other buildings are designed by Alan Camp of Alan Camp Architects.
The new destination will provide 1,113 new homes, including apartments, maisonettes, penthouses and townhouses, 60,913 sqft (5,659 sqm) of office floorspace, 23,982 sqft of retail space, 25,144 sqft of flexible space for restaurants, café, cinema and leisure premises and 6,415 sqft of space for cultural facilities such as a youth theatre or mini-opera house. The shops, restaurants and cafes are expected to create up to 580 new jobs.
The new development will provide one hectare of new public open space in the form of a linear park with trees, planting, parkland, waterfeatures and pedestrian boulevards, connecting with the neighbouring 140 acre (56 hectare) Burgess Park, one of the largest parks in South London.
Other open and green spaces within the scheme will include a new public square, courtyard garden, two children’s play areas and a raised podium garden. The development is complete with car parking, cycle bays, landscaping and new infrastructure works.
Of the 1,113 homes there will be 750 private sale units including 735 apartments, duplexes and penthouses. The private sale apartments will be located in the 48-storey residential tower and an adjacent 13-storey building, located on the south-eastern side of the development.
The two residential buildings will provide studio suite, one, two and three-bedroom apartments ranging from 39 square metres to 86 square metres in size. The buildings will be connected at ground level by a double height entrance lobby with concierge, lifts and lounge/waiting areas. There will also be a retail boulevard of premium units at the ground level, which will neighbour and overlook the linear park.
Private sale apartments will also occupy a series of low-rise four-storey apartment buildings overlooking a small park, located on the western side of the development, neighbouring a new tree-lined terrace of 15 three-storey four-bedroom London townhouses.
Additionally there will be 126 one, two and three-bedroom shared-ownership apartments and 237 one, two and three bedroom-apartments and maisonettes for social rent. Thirty-five percent of the residential provision will therefore provide Southwark with much needed affordable housing, available for local residents requiring accommodation assistance.
There will be four buildings rising to 37-storeys, two 11-storey and one of nine-storeys surrounding a central podium. The residential element of the buildings will be mixed tenure with separate cores for private sale, shared ownership and social-rented homes.
The podium and one of the 11-storey buildings fronting onto the Old Kent Road will provide the majority of the development’s commercial floorspace, with 10 per cent of the space at discounted rent for start-up firms and small and medium-sized entreprises.
The new development will have a six-year construction programme. Existing Cantium Retail Park anchor tenants will be included in the development and the developers are holding discussions with other tenants about making provisions for them within the scheme.
Helen Rainsford, senior director at Aviva Investors said, “Aviva Investors is pleased planning consent has been granted for the regeneration of Cantium Retail Park. Working with Galliard Homes, we believe we can create a superb residential-led mixed-use development that will transform the site for the benefit of the local area.”
Stephen Conway, Executive Chairman of Galliard Homes said: “Galliard Homes is delighted to be working with our partner Aviva Investors to deliver another major regeneration project in Southwark, creating a vibrant new destination on the Old Kent Road. The regeneration of Cantium Retail Park will serve to kick-start the wider planned regeneration and transformation of the entire Old Kent Road into a vibrant new high quality commercial, retail and residential destination for South London.”
The Council have a masterplan known as the Old Kent Road Action Plan which aims through regeneration to transform the thoroughfare into a new urban town centre for Southwark. The Old Kent Road is famous for being the first property square on the British Monopoly board, the only square on the board in South London and south of the Thames.
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