Transport for London has committed to meeting local concerns about safety and community facilities as its new consultation on plans for building above Southwark London Underground station gets underway.
The latest proposals follow a previous consultation conducted earlier this year and long standing discussions with Southwark Council about how to realise potential for building above the station that was identified when it was opened in 1999.
TfL hopes to put up a tower about 17 storeys high, which would contain around 180,000 square feet of commercial space and 7,500 square feet of retail space in the area around the station entrance, bounded by Blackfriars Road, The Cut, Hatfields and Isabella Street.
The building would include “affordable office space which could be used by local or small businesses” and also improve pedestrian access to the station and local businesses close to it. The scheme has been designed by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.
The plans entail an exchange of land between the transport body and Southwark, which would allow the latter to build a minimum of 24 new council homes pending ongoing discussions with the tenant management organisation (TMO) of Styles House, a 56-dwelling, 1960s-built council-owned dual housing block on the junction of The Cut and Hatfields.
In April, Southwark confirmed a 2015 promise made when a previous, different set of plans was being considered, that any development on Styles House land would require the agreement of Styles House residents. Cabinet member for social regeneration Leo Pollak placed on record his personal thanks to TMO members “for their tireless work” and for the goodwill of TfL in establishing the principles that will govern the scheme and “achieve a more equitable starting point to the process”.
The transport body says its approach will recognise the desire among local people for new public space to be well lit and to generally discourage antisocial behaviour with CCTV and 24 hour security guards. The plans will involve the demolition of a TfL-owned former industrial building called The Platform, which is currently being used as a “meanwhile space” for artists and small business start-ups, as On London has reported. The consultation will close on 24 November.
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