The scheme, known as Hope Wharf, will see buildings up to 14 storeys constructed, containing 125 flats and slightly over 500sqm of office space. Of the 125 flats, 81 will be for the private market, 16 for intermediate tenure, and 28 for social rent.

The designs, by John Pardey Architects, take on a warehouse feel, reflecting the history and immediate context of the site. The main elevations will front onto Deptford Creek, and will be visible to riders on the DLR line between Deptford Bridge and Greenwich stations when looking South. Smaller elements will front Greenwich High Road.

The scheme comprises a 36 storey tower containing 203 residential flats, of which 203 will be for the private market, 39 for intermediate tenures (a mix of shared ownership and affordable rent) and 20 for social rent. There will also be 2213 sqm of retail space, plus a small amount of flexible commercial space.

The designs, by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, have changed to reflect comments by Greenwich Council’s planning department. Some of the main changes include the removal of single-aspect flats and the removal of a second building. The number of flats has also been reduced from 395.

On the site to the North-East of the Tesco, which is currently a temporary park, the proposals include a 30 storey tower and around 200 residential flats, combined with 660sqm retail and 700sqm of commercial floorspace. This is known as Phase 3 of the masterplan, the previous two phases having already been completed.

The site behind the Tesco, fronting the South Circular Road, will see buildings up to 20 storeys and around 600 flats. This will be phase 4, and thus likely will begin construction after the taller tower.

Plans suggest construction will start in mid-2018 and complete in 2022, subject to a planning application – which has yet to be submitted – being approved. The site already benefits from planning for a smaller scheme which includes a tower of similar height.

Photo credit: Google Streetview.

In addition to the tallest building, there is also a shorter separate block, and a shoulder-building to the tower. The shorter building, at 11 storeys, contains the hotel and some of the residential units.

The colour scheme, being mainly dark grey, is quite a contrast to the recently completed apartment building just to the east of the site which is clad in gold to match the neighbouring Sainsbury’s.

The design inspiration for the scheme, which has been designed by shedkm, is a mixture of elements inspired by RSH+P designs including Neo Bankside such as the cross bracing, and from Squire and Partners Landmark Towers which have influenced the horizontal banding.

The site originally had plans for significantly shorter buildings, but given the location next to a Crossrail station, a tower fits well with the principles of Transit Oriented Development. The area around Abbey Wood already has many shorter towers from the 1960s and 1970s, including those at Southmere Lake which featured in Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange.

This part of the scheme will be fully private, with the affordable provision agreed within the masterplan being provided within other buildings on the site.

Interestingly while the outline permission allowed for studios, often the most profitable unit type for developers given their small size, Berkeley have chosen to only include flats with separate bedrooms with 383 one bed flats, 303 two bed apartments and 78 family-sized three-bedders.

Barton Willmore has drawn up the designs, opting for a glazed aluminium rainscreen curtain wall on the upper floors, with two storey bronze metal cladding at the base.

The windows are in a consistent location across the tower, giving it a strong vertical appearance, with black window frames and balconies, contrasting with the light silver colour of the aluminium.

Overall the design contrasts greatly with the brick-based towers of the over-station development, which are in the process of completing, and the historic buildings of Royal Arsenal, helping the scheme avoid becoming too monotone in its palette as well as giving a nod to the other historic materiality of the previous use of the site in producing metal armaments and munitions.

The scheme is located close to the Ferry Terminal, as well as the foot tunnel – the longer, and often forgotten cousin of the Greenwich foot tunnel, and only a short walk away from the new Crossrail station, as well as the existing DLR and train stations.

Next door is the leisure centre, which in renders is appearing increasingly dated and low-rise compared with its neighbours. Almost certainly this will be developed in the near future, as will sites across Woolwich High Street – including a site we covered a scoping proposal for recently.

The buildings will be partly converted, however, the main element of the scheme is an 11 storey residential block which will replace an element of the Carriage Works considered to be ‘lower quality’ by the architects, AHMM. Much of the rest of the buildings will be converted for commercial use.

Other elements of the scheme include converting the Officers House back into residential usage, along with a six-storey extension.

3 Additional Storeys for 6 Flats in Harrow

Plans in to add an additional three storeys to a small block in Harrow’s town centre on Headstone Road, bringing it closer in height to neighbouring properties – but only adding an additional six flats. Drawing at the top of the post is also of this scheme.

8 Flats Above & Behind a Wallington Pub

Extensions planned to a trendy Woodcote Road pub mainly to the rear, but also above, in order to provide eight flats, half of which are two bed apartments.

8 Flats in Roof Extension to Block of Flats in Earls Court

Plans have been submitted to extend the roof of a post-war block of flats on Cromwell Road to provide eight extra flats, many of them studios.

6 Additional Flats above Converted Offices in New Malden

Plans have been lodged to add an additional floor to a recently converted office to add six additional flats to the existing nineteen in the currently three-storey building.

10 Flats in HMO Conversion & Extension in Eltham

Plans have been lodged to convert a 21 room HMO into 10 flats, by way of a two storey extension, on Southwood Road in Eltham.

7 Flat Extension Scheme on a Semi Detached House in Golders Green

Plans are in for a four storey rear extension to a semi-detached house in Golders Green’s Finchley Road to convert the property from four flats into seven.

The application has been submitted by the HUB Group, who are utilising the services of Barton Willmore for the scoping application. Back in May 2016 a similar scoping application was submitted for the same number of units and hotel rooms, however a new application has now been drawn up due to changes – including increasing the commercial floorspace, decreasing the hotel floorspace while keeping room numbers the same, and an increase in height of the tower from 27 to 29 storeys.

The scheme is located between Felixstowe Road and the new Sainsbury’s, which are just north of Abbey Wood station which will be on Crossrail. The site is immediately to the West of the recently built 10 storey gold and black apartment building.

The 0.39 hectare site is bound by Woolwich High Street, Powis Street and Mortgramit Square. To the West is the Gala Bingo and to the East is the Co-Op Building, neither of which are within the application site. The buildings on site vary from small retail units facing Powis Street, of various ages and conditions, to backlands MOT testing facilities and car wash facilities. Overall there is little of architectural interest in the site, unlike surrounding buildings.

JLL is acting as agent for the application, and the developer is United Living (South) Woolwich Ltd, which appears to be linked to the United Living construction firm who have developed several London projects.

The scheme will involve four buildings of between four and 24 storeys being constructed on the site, the largest of these will be in the centre of the site while Powis Street will be fronted by a part four, part five storey building.

While thus far towers have not been constructed in this part of Woolwich, the site is situated close to the large Royal Arsenal development which plans towers just at the other side of Woolwich High Street.

Existing building photo credit: Google Streetview.

The business centre sits close to the Barracks, and is in the Woolwich Dockyard neighbourhood, and is almost in Charlton. The three storey warehouse style building is common among small business centres across London, most of which surprisingly haven’t taken advantage of office to residential prior approval legislation.

The plans have come in from developer London Green, who often deal with larger projects including new build schemes. However it seems unlikely they will submit plans for new build in this location, given the business centre is already taller than the nearby terraced housing stock.

Most of the flats are one bedroom, but interestingly some of these are spread over two storey duplexes. There’s also a couple of two bed flats.

Photo credit: Google Streeview