The Next Stage of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich
Apologies for the lack of updates. I havn’t been in SE London much at all recently. Anyway I’ve found these detailed renders of the next stage (Phase 3 – The Warren) at the Arsenal site in Woolwich in a planning application that’s just gone in.
The new buildings match the newest block just behind the Dial Arch pub (as seen on the left of the image above) pretty well. The older building is the Royal Laboratory buildings which will be refurbished. The construction of new buildings will creep slowly towards the skate park and Waterfront leisure centre in future years. That whole area, currently a car park opposite Riverside House, will see the next big changes as towers are built on the riverfront. The numbers of new homes across the masterplan planned is higher than initially thought with taller towers planned, so Berkeley homes can raise more money to pay for the Crossrail station box. The preparatory works for that began in the summer.
Any opinions on the designs? Though not exceptional they are quite attractive, and match the new development over the other side of No 1 Street, which I am really quite keen on. The rounded brick edges of the next stage remind me of a few 1980s buildings, not least the one over the road which comprises Lidl. Probably not the connotation Berkeley wanted, or will include in their promotional fluff.
One other thing – how tatty are the buildings along that parade where the indoor market is? I remember taking some snaps of them over 5 years ago as I thought they would be for imminent demolition. Passing the other day it was hard to believe they are still standing and no developer has bought the land.
Agreed, they are not exceptional but far from offensive. I rather like the large arch on the first picture – what is its purpose? Does it give access to an inner courtyard? I do think that the rounded brick corners detract somewhat from the appearance, not quite sure why they have used those.
The initial masterplan had a path between two buildings. In the revised submission the two buildings are now one with the path going through the arch to squeeze some more flats in.
The look alright and fit in with the surroudings.
The ones on the right i.e behind the pub were recently advertised in Hong Kong as per the following link. I would like to say I have exotic links that side of the world ( if any at all) but alas Google revealed all. Reading the press relase, all I can is I’m sold.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=16&art_id=115990&sid=34052024&con_type=3&d_str=&fc=7
Surely more people in Woolwich is a good un.
Awesome site you have here but I was curious if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover
the same topics talked about in this article?
I’d really like to be a part of group where I can get feed-back from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thank you!
From my experience of these types of sites they don’t have nearly enough density for there to be that many people walking around as shown in the pictures. I think it’s a major issue too, because the tendancy is to go for wide paved areas, but without enough people these just look barren and desolute. Good design would either increase the density or provide a reason for people to be in the public spaces, a cafe, shop, childrens play area or even a community hall of some sort. Otherwise it just becomes another place where people don’t talk to their neighbours.