Scheme swapped for student accommodation because of falling demand for workspace
Southwark council has approved AHMM’s plans for a student accommodation scheme above Southwark station after proposals for an office tower on the site were scrapped.
A joint venture between Places for London, Transport for London’s (TfL) property company, and developer Helical have been granted permission to build a 15-storey building on the station’s roof and a nine-storey affordable housing scheme on an adjacent site.
The new scheme, which would contain 429 student rooms and 44 affordable homes, replaces consented plans for a 17-storey office tower above the station and a neighbouring 14-storey council housing block.
The previous proposals, both also designed by AHMM, were approved in 2022 and 2021 respectively and demolition of a community hall, garages and eight studio flats on the Styles House site, next to the station, has been completed.
However, Southwark has said it no longer has funding available to build the council homes, while the office tower, which would have been occupied by TfL, is now surplus to the transport operator’s requirements due to post-covid working changes.
“This potentially means that neither site will come forward for the foreseeable future,” Southwark planning officers said, adding that TfL had partnered with Helical to “avoid this outcome” by developing a new scheme for the site.
While AHMM, project manager Gardiner & Theobald and facade engineer Aecom have kept their places on the project team, transport engineer WSP, civil and structural engineer Atkins and planning consultant Deloitte are no longer working on it.
Landscape architect Exterior Architecture has been replaced by Studio GB, with other new additions to the team including Mace, Heyne Tillett Steel and Curtins.
Helen Dennis, Southwark council cabinet member for new homes and sustainable development, said she was “delighted” the project could move forward, adding: “I’m particularly pleased that we reached a creative solution, using our planning policies to turn a negative situation into a positive at Styles House.”
Helical chief executive Matthew Bonnong Snook added: “Whilst the site benefitted from planning permission for a 220,000 sq ft office scheme we have brought forward a more valuable proposition at this important site which will deliver much in demand purpose built student accommodation and affordable housing along with high quality public realm and significant benefits to the local community.”
Southwark station was designed by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard’s (MJP Architects) and opened in 1999 as part of the Jubilee Line extension.
While it was designed to accommodate an overstation development (OSD) on its roof, AHMM’s plans would require the removal and replacement of some internal fabric including a central column which is a focal point of the station’s ticket hall.
The 20th Century Society, which submitted a listing bid for the station last year, has objected to the new plans, arguing: “Would it not be possible to carry the load of the OSD through the building elsewhere, without impacting so significantly this key part of the interiors?”
Southwark planning officers replied that the proposed building could not be supported on existing columns, and that interior interventions will be carried out “as sensitively as possible”. The replacement central column will be ”as slim as possible” and would be subject to a separate listed building consent application if the site is listed prior to the start of construction.
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