56 Woolwich town centre shops purchased by one of UK’s largest developers

One of Britain’s biggest developers has purchased a large number of properties in Woolwich town centre for £103 million.

British Land are behind the purchase. The properties form “Woolwich Arsenal estate” and occupy many retail units in Powis and Hare Streets, shown in blue below, including Primark, New Look, Iceland and the corner building by Beresford Square including Greggs.Mansford purchased the sites from Powis Street estates for £52.5 million back in 2014, and have now sold them on.

Under Mansford’s ownership the focus was often on converting upper floors to residential usage.

I was intending to put this post up yesterday but a few things came up. What that has meant though is that I’ve had time to read various reports of this story.

Virtually all of them repeat and rehash the press release. There’s very little knowledge of the area shown, and amusingly many fall for the PR guff including describing Woolwich as a “shopping mecca”.

Ok then. Even its biggest fans wouldn’t say that right now, though it does have fantastic potential to return to its former glory.




For those worried about mass demolition I can’t see that being the case given  conversion to residential, fragmented nature of sites and the small size of many units.

However, some units will probably be rebuilt and in some cases it wont be the worst thing in the world given poor quality buildings such as New Look.

Courtesy Google

Crossrail is cited as a big factor behind the purchase, as to be expected. British Land also claim to want independent retailers as well as big brands, which given the small size of many units makes sense.

They have given a timeline of five years for their planned transformation.

It’s part of the ever evolving nature of Woolwich.

Developers St Modwen last week submitted a planning application for 742 homes and shops at Spray Street and last year approval was given for a mixed-use development at the “Island Site”including 310 homes.

The island site development




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J Smith

I've lived in south east London most of my life growing up in Greenwich borough and working in the area for many years. The site has contributors on occasion and we cover many different topics. Living and working in the area offers an insight into what is happening locally.

4 thoughts on “56 Woolwich town centre shops purchased by one of UK’s largest developers

  • This is a much better idea than what certain developers have planned for Spray Street.. This is what London is about mixing old with new, I honestly hope a similar idea is thought of for Spray Street before it’s too late!

    Reply
  • I don’t know if this idea as come up by anyone but I’d like to put my interest/point across…. To be honest I think a trinity walk shopping centre should be built as it is a part of the new look of the new properties being built in woolwich/Royal Arsenal and will look nice all the big retail shops in one big shopping centre instead of individual retails being built takes up more space where they could make it look tidy and smart

    Reply
  • Your proposal would mean that the high streets then become ‘low rent’ only further dragging down the general air of shabbiness.

    Reply
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