UK: A consented office scheme in Elephant & Castle, south London, will now become a 24-storey PBSA tower after a change of strategy by developers Joseph Homes and Alumrose LLP.
Architects Maccreanor Lavington’s new plans for the scheme have been recommended for approval by Southwark council’s planning officer and are expected to be granted permission next week.
The redrawn proposals would occupy a highly constrained triangular site on the corner of Rockingham Street and Tiverton Street, next to the railway viaduct.
The building would provide 244 student rooms and the redevelopment of three railway arches beneath the viaduct to provide 67 square metres of commercial space.
The original proposals for the site, by Collado Collins were consented in July 2020, and would have seen the construction of a 21-storey office tower on the site. That scheme had also replaced a 13-storey residential scheme on the site designed by Alan Camp Architects.
Maccreanor Lavington was appointed in 2021 to redraw the plans.
Joseph Homes has agreed to pay £8.54 million towards affordable housing in the area as part of the section 106 agreement.
Southwark’s planning officer described the building as a “carefully conceived scheme which would provide an engaging building of an appropriately urban character”.
