Journey of the Elephant ULI UK Development Forum, 27 July 2017
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www.europe.uli.org Journey of the Elephant ULI UK Development Forum, 27 July 2017 At ULI’s third UK Introduction ambitious £3bn programme of investment Development Forum, leading planned for Elephant & Castle, including The tangible results of regeneration at £150m in public transport and £6m in jobs developers, investors, Elephant & Castle are taking shape with the and training. By 2025, 5,000 new and advisers and public sector first residential apartment buildings, a whole replacement homes will be built and 10,000 representatives gathered at street of environmentally friendly Passivhaus jobs created. Lendlease’s site office at townhouses and a thriving leisure centre whose reach already extends far beyond this The opportunity for such large-scale Elephant & Castle to learn central London site. regeneration of a Zone 1 site is rare, about the experiences of the especially one whose decline has been so public and private sector With construction under way across much dramatic. Always an important and busy partners involved in one of of the 28-acre site, the London Borough of transport interchange, Elephant & Castle was Southwark is confident that its two main known as “the Piccadilly Circus of South London’s largest development partners – Lendlease and London” just over a 100 years ago. regeneration projects. Delancey – are on track to deliver the 1 By the 1960s, the ill-conceived and poorly According to Stafford Lancaster, Investment something we have to be very alive to designed shopping centre – which never Director of Delancey, the well-chronicled because the results can be, in the long term, achieved full occupancy – and the problems that beset the existing shopping very costly.” dysfunctional Heygate Estate only centre from the outset offer a salutary lesson precipitated the area’s decline. The to all developers today. It was clear from the forum that Lendlease, car-friendly transport links became part Delancey and Southwark feel a keen sense of the problem. “It’s a reminder of the potential for huge folly of responsibility to succeed at Elephant & in delivering on such a grand scale and Castle. And so far, the signs are promising. As Louise Newman, a Director of Tavernor ambition,” he said. “For all the good reasons By the end of 2017, some 2,000 people will Consultancy, told the forum: “The shopping that we are doing this, it is not only the risk be living in the new homes built by centre came to symbolise the fact that from a on design but also the risk on budgets and Lendlease while Get Living, Delancey’s bustling Victorian town centre that had the risk of dumbing down at the last minute residential management arm, will be grown incrementally over 100 years, in an effort to get something delivered in a welcoming tenants to its first 374-unit phase Elephant & Castle had become a non-place difficult environment. I think that’s a huge of housing. – a traffic junction, really.” risk around everything we’re doing, and 2 The local authority’s perspective – Southwark Council Elephant & Castle was identified as an “I don’t think any local authority decides to Opportunity Area in the Mayor’s London Plan demolish an estate lightly,” said Platts. as far back as 2002, and by then the need for “It’s very expensive; it takes a huge amount significant investment was pressing although of political capital and time, and it’s long-term regeneration was never going to extremely difficult for the residents. But the be straightforward. Heygate Estate had some fundamental difficulties that couldn’t be addressed Part of the challenge, according to Stephen through refurbishment. The car was king on Platts, Director of Regeneration at the the Heygate. The ground floor was all about London Borough of Southwark, was that the car and garaging. Pedestrians were on Elephant & Castle represented different the first-floor walkways, which were ideal for things to different people: one of Europe’s muggers and anti-social behaviour.” busiest transport interchanges, a complex series of subways, an area of crime and The regeneration plan that ensued, therefore, deprivation, and not least a home for 1,200 was ambitious: £3bn of investment in total, council tenants and leaseholders on the including £150m in public transport, and the Heygate Estate. creation of 10,000 jobs. By 2005, some housing development was under way but Elephant & Castle and along Walworth Road, As Platts suggested, Elephant & Castle did regeneration started in earnest in 2010 with which also lies within the Opportunity Area. not feel like part of central London despite its a 15-year partnership agreement between “One of the issues at Elephant & Castle, and Zone 1 location and its “fantastic” transport Southwark and Lendlease followed by Southwark generally, is that the vast majority links, and a big part of the problem here was Delancey’s acquisition of the shopping of comparison shopping goes out of the the Heygate. In early research, more than centre in late 2013. borough,” said Platts. “So, one of the three quarters of the residents voted for objectives is an improvement on the retail demolition. It was important to Southwark that offer for local residents.” regeneration boosts the night-time economy, “I don’t think any local and the council encouraged the inclusion of For Southwark, however, housing was always at the heart of the project, and the authority decides to a significant commitment to leisure, bars and restaurants in the Lendlease and Delancey plans call for as many as 5,000 new and demolish an estate masterplans. Another consideration was replacement homes – 1,650 of which to be lightly,” striking a balance between the uses in affordable, split evenly between social rent and shared ownership. “At the end of the project we are absolutely confident that there will be more than 1,000 social rented units within the Opportunity Area – more than we originally intended,” said Platts. As for the people who lived on the Heygate Estate, 1,000 tenants were re-housed within Southwark and all but two of the 200 leasehold properties were acquired through negotiation at market value. 3 The developer’s perspective - Lendlease The developer’s perspective - Lendlease Lendlease is working in partnership with Southwark Council to deliver a £2.3bn redevelopment of Elephant & Castle – in sheer monetary terms the bulk of the overall regeneration project but also an ambitious reinvention of a gritty urban environment as Central London’s “new green heart”. By 2025, Lendlease will build nearly 3,000 homes, more than 50 shops and restaurants, as well as create a park – London’s first new public park for 70 years – connected to a vast array of green spaces. The park and much of the housing are known This theme of openness is a feature of the By the time Lendlease completes all the new collectively as Elephant Park, and take up 10 masterplan by Make Architects, which seeks planting in the plan, there will be 1,200 trees. acres of the development site. The infusion to bring land back into public beneficial use of so much green space here is all the more while alleviating the financial burden on the The trees represent one aspect of a remarkable because Lendlease is not just public purse. wide-ranging commitment to sustainability. replacing the old Heygate Estate but more Lendlease has recently completed “Future - than doubling the density of housing. The aspiration is to make Elephant & Castle home”, a development of 22 townhouses, 15 a destination in its own right – rather than of which have been built to the acknowledged Even now, this is something of design settle for a high-quality dormitory or green benchmark known as Passivhaus – the success. With early phases of housing somewhere people just pass through – and first Passivhaus homes in Zone 1. A new completed to the south of Elephant Park, to do so, explained Heasman, by utilising Energy Hub, meanwhile, will provide net zero one of the most striking features for anyone the best features of an established, albeit carbon heat to all 3,000 homes, with the familiar with the area and the Heygate’s neglected, neighbourhood. “Day by day we capacity to connect to a further 1,000 infamous elevated walkways is the creation understand and find out more about the buildings outside the regeneration area. of a pedestrian and cyclist-friendly Elephant, and it’s a fantastic place, full of streetscape. life,” he said. “In a sense, it’s an Elephant The overall intention here is to be the UK’s re-awakening.” first climate positive development, which “We wanted to create a network of streets means the focus will be on ongoing where people could pass through the A crucial part of the regeneration will be operational efficiencies as well cutting Elephant, particularly east to west, without Sayer Street, a new central shopping street, carbon emissions during construction. any barriers and regardless of whether they which will complement Delancey’s town lived on the estate or not,” said Rob centre retail offer by providing shop space That same spirit of sustainable living is Heasman, Lendlease’s Project Director. to local independent retailers at discounted already evident in a new £20m public leisure rents. centre – in effect, paid for by regeneration. “Day by day we The centre opened in 2016, and serves not understand and find out Inevitably, however, there will be sensitivities just the residents in the immediate vicinity more about the Elephant, when regenerating such a vast Zone 1 site. but the wider community – as many as One issue raised during the community 450,000 visits in its first year. The and it’s a fantastic place, consultation was the preservation of the development of the leisure centre reflects the full of life,” 400-plus trees on the site.