Tall & Urban News

Maccreanor Lavington has got the all-clear for two schemes around the Old Kent Road in South London.

A 39-story, brick-clad residential tower is the centerpiece of a three-building scheme in the opportunity area that will include a total of 372 homes, retail, workspace, and café. It will also include roof gardens on the lower levels. A three-story church with a capacity of 600 will be built at the base of the tower. The existing neighboring Everlasting Arms Ministry will relocate to this space. A Grade II-listed mural designed by Polish artist Adam Kossowski in 1965, which is part of the church’s current building, will be moved.

The two adjacent buildings are residential at the upper levels, with 2,500 square meters of light industrial and retail floor space at the plinth levels.

 “This masonry tower has a rich mix of community uses within the first floors, and the scheme is the beginning of the emerging wider master plan and vision set to completely transform and expand the area,” said Maccreanor Lavington’s founding director, Gerard Maccreanor.

The client on this scheme, called Civic Centre and Livesey Place, is a team featuring Civic Centre Ltd, Shaviram Development Ltd, and Old Kent Road Regeneration Ltd.

A stepped, faceted tower rising to 26 stories is the focus of this development for Acorn Commercial, which will also include workspace as well as retail and cafés. It will also provide a new home for a church, with facilities for its social outreach program which includes youth work, child care, after-school clubs, adult education and help for the homeless.

The flats range from one to three bedrooms, with 36 percent affordable tenure, but with a single entrance lobby and circulation, including access for all to communal roof terraces.

For more on this story, go to Building Design.