Old Kent Road and beyond Old Kent Road Area audit CASS CITIES 2015-16 4 Contents City NOT suburb 6 Who we are 8 Why we asked? 10 2014 GLA survey 12 History and context 14 The economic mix 18 Location, location, location 26 An industrial strength economy 30 What is made here? 36 People at work 40 Independent business 44 A city needs mixed typologies 48 Civic life 52 Planned deconstruction 56 Acknowledgements 60 Bibliography 61 A catalogue of businesses 62 345 AINTRODUCTION CITY NEEDS MIXED TYPOLOGIES 6 City NOT suburb The Old Kent Road is simply a fascinating place. An warehouses. Today the Old Kent Road houses a diverse ancient artery to the south east of central London, which array of economic activity, most of which is not always is the fragment of a connection between the heart of visible at first glance. Beyond the main road lies an the city to the counties of Kent and beyond. economic powerhouse. So shouldn’t this grow as well? Built up over centuries from complex layers of urbanity, City making is not simple, there is no one size fits a melting pot of ingredients which make up a living, all approach. Like people, places are individuals and breathing and working piece of city. But how much cities thrive on just that, they are made up of millions longer will the Old Kent Road have the lowest value on of activities, jobs and lives. The Old Kent Road is an the Monopoly board? example of this, what we like to call ‘super-mix’ and we believe there is room for even more mix. The Area In 2014 the London Borough of Southwark and the Action Plan should promote this approach and spark Greater London Authority announced plans to transform experiment and debate in city making, testing methods the Old Kent Road and began work on an Area Action and means of urban enrichment. Plan, which is due for completion in late 2016. Currently undergoing consultation, we believe the Area Action We believe the Old Kent Road can move up the Monopoly Plan has a unique opportunity to enrich and enliven board, but in more ways than one. House building is a this charming place. Yet concerns continue to grow that profitable business but so too are all the activities and the Old Kent Road as we know it may soon be lost for businesses that continue to flourish in the area today. good, swallowed up to become little more than a super This book offers an insight into this precious piece of scaled housing estate. London, its economic workings and its value to the continued and sustainable growth of our city. Housing is important and ever more necessary as London continues to grow, but we also need the other ingredients of a city, from the high street to the industrial park, the small family run shop to the factories and 347 AINTRODUCTION CITY NEEDS MIXED TYPOLOGIES 8 Who we are We are eleven architecture students from the Sir John within the London Boroughs of Southwark and Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design. We make Lewisham, in an attempt to research and catalogue up the Cass Cities unit under the direction of urban the existing environment with two distinct objectives. practitioners Mark Brearley, Jane Clossick and Colin Firstly, we wish to enthuse and encourage people to O’Sullivan. take an active role in their community, helping them understand what they already have and how they can We study cities in their varying forms, examining make it better. Secondly, we wish to propose, interject their complexities and idiosyncrasies to understand and play with this piece of city. Examining how our what makes a city work. Our ethos is to promote and beliefs for a super mixed environment can be realised encourage design led place-making as a shared and amidst the already rich and diverse. ongoing project, in which we can all participate. This year we have completed an audit of the economic life of the Old Kent Road and the surrounding areas G R E A T E R L O N D O N 349 AINTRODUCTION CITY NEEDS MIXED TYPOLOGIES 10 Why we asked? Locked between central London and the outer suburbs, what exactly is the Old Kent Road and how can it be defined? To find this out we’ve been out and about, spending three months rigorously recording the economic life and activities of this place through the collation of both qualitative and quantitative research. We’ve asked the businesses of the Old Kent Road and the surrounding areas to share with us their thoughts and experiences. Through questionnaires, interviews, photographs and sketches we’ve recorded what exactly this piece of city contributes to London. We’ve collated our findings in this book, in an attempt to achieve what contemporary planning and policy makers are failing to do…. Looking at the bigger economic picture to create a non-residential life map, which can be used to assess the true value of the existing condition. Our findings will also be used to create spatial responses, strategies and propositions with the hope of securing a healthy and well balanced economy for the Old Kent Road before suburban London grows ever bigger. 5 3411 AINTRODUCTION CITY NEEDS MIXED TYPOLOGIES 12 2014 GLA survey Following the announcement of the Old Kent Road Area fringes of Camberwell and Peckham to the vibrant Action Plan, the Greater London Authority and the London centre of Deptford, heading north through the many Borough of Southwark commissioned an audit along concealed industrial estates along the former Grand the length of the Old Kent Road in 2014. Documenting Surrey Canal and under the hundreds of railway arches the business activities, jobs and employers to whom that link the south east to the centre. the road and its proximity to central London is vital, this was formulated into the ‘Old Kent Road Employment We believe the boundaries of the Old Kent Road to be Study’. blurred, each community, district, industrial estate and high street is dependent on one another to survive. This was the first time an audit of this type was ever So we’ve stretched and strengthened our audit to commissioned by a local authority in an attempt to understand this, with the hope that far reaching truly comprehend the strength of the existing urban effects of any fracture in the Old Kent Road’s vibrant fabric, with the intent of informing future combined economy through misguided development can be seen, development of both houisng and business in the new understood and prevented. Area Action Plan. Crossing borough boundaries, the audit signalled a positive shift in approach towards planning and acknowledgment of industrial working spaces in inner city environments. Sadly, this audit has yet to be published as part of the area wide community consultation and is not informing the master planning of the wider Old Kent Road. As a result, still very few people know the true economic value of their shop, factory, warehouse or garage. So we have adopted the data of this survey and built upon it. Extending the catchment of the audit area to encompass the surrounding hinterlands, from the 3413 AINTRODUCTION CITY NEEDS MIXED TYPOLOGIES 14 History and Context 1 3415 Knocked ‘em in the Old Kent Road Last week down our alley came a toff Nice old geezer with a nasty cough Sees my missus, takes his topper off In a very gentlemanly way “Wot cher!” all the neighbours cried “Who yer gonna meet, Bill Have yer bought the street, Bill”? 1890 Laugh! I thought I should’ve died AND CONTEXT A CITYHISTORY NEEDS MIXED TYPOLOGIES Knocked ‘em in the Old Kent Road Ev’ry evenin’ at the stroke of five Me and the missus takes a little drive You’d say, “Wonderful they’re still alive” If you saw that little donkey go When we starts the blessed donkey stops He won’t move, so out I quickly lops Pals start whackin’ him, when down he drops Someone says he wasn’t made to go “Wot cher!” all the neighbors cried 1930 “Who yer gonna meet, Bill Have yer bought the street, Bill”? Laugh! I thought I should’ve died Knocked ‘em in the Old Kent Road Knocked ‘em in the Old Kent Road (wot’ cher !) - 1891 From the movie “The Little Princess” (1939) (Albert Chevalier / Charles Ingle) 1990 The Old Kent Road has a history. It was part of an ancient trackway route The present day map shows some of the historic buildings along the road providing a key transport link to connect London to Dover. It acquired the which are still there today and play an important part in the shaping of the name in the 19th century and before this was known as Kent Road. At this road’s identity. These should be taken into account when considering the time the area was primarily rural and lined with coaching inns. The industrial many possible futures for the area. character began to develop in 1811 with the opening of the Surrey Canal. The Old Kent Road is an historically significant part of London, boasting one By 1845, when the Bricklayers Arms station was opened, the road began to of the largest populations in London in the mid 19th Century. Whilst providing develop pockets of industry, commerce and housing. The maps above show numerous homes, the area also maintained strong industrial and commercial some of the major changes in the area over time: the construction of railways, sectors. History has shown that the Old Kent Road can accommodate a rich the opening of the gas works and the construction of Burgess Park, but also mix of sectors, and it is this that has given it its rich and diverse history.