Lewisham retail park set to remain as housing plans stall
A retail park near Lewisham station looks set to remain as two plans to refurbish and alter units have been submitted.
Legal and General own the retail park and gained permission for 535 homes and shops in 2019, however they have yet to gain possession of older buildings on part of the land.
L&G stated: “Due to the complexities associated with site acquisition, L&G are currently engaging in discussions with the Council regarding the delivery of this planning permission for comprehensive redevelopment.”
The site currently houses Sports Direct, Matalan and a site office for an adjacent tower currently under construction.
Lewisham retail park changes has been a development this site has covered for at least five years.
One plan is to permit food sales at one unit, and another sees L&G now seek to install “new shopfronts and re-cladding of the units 1-4 at Lewisham Retail Park Loampit Vale SE13, together with the creation of new pedestrian to the front, the reconfiguration of car and cycle parking and new sheltered cycle stands”.
There are four units on site. As for Unit 1, they state: “Currently this unit is vacant. Food retail is permitted and a potential occupier is in discussions with L&G and should take occupation subject to improvements being made to the appearance of the building and parking area.”
Sports Direct occupy Unit 2.
Unit 4 is occupied by Matalan, who would move to Unit 3 with food use sought at Unit 4.
Mothercare previously vacated the site.
Towers next door
The plan to retain a vehicle-centric retail park beside a new residential tower goes against planning policy to encourage mixed-use development in sites of excellent public transport links.
Those links have taken a knock somewhat, as the Bakerloo Line extension doesn’t look like gaining funding anytime soon, and a 2030 opening date will not be met.
In addition, even a new public entrance to Lewisham station – to increase passenger access and included as part of the new tower development next door – is now not going to open when the tower completes as covered on this site last week.
There is no date for opening the new station entrance and exit beside Platform 1.
A shame for ‘Unit 1’ which has been converted to a number of studios for local artists for a couple of years since it was vacated, they are constantly hosting exhibitions and doing interesting work. So it’s a shame for it to be described as ‘vacant’ in the planning documents.
Make sense to refurbished the existingretail units and allow the empty units to be for food retail if the plans for new homes are not going to be built anytime soon.
Like with developments in neighbouring Greenwich more amenities including supermarkets etc are required to meet the demand of the growing population as residents move to these new developments. We all have to eat after all.
Sports Direct occupies Unit 2 not 3, I believe.
Realistically greater value to the local community would be for easy access to good value food shops (e.g. Farmfoods, Aldi or Morrisons) or value shops (e.g. B&M, Home Bargains) as the local Lewisham population on low wages need places to shop too.
I agree that Local Artist studios are important but there are some vacant shops that could house this on Lewisham Way close to Sainsbury’s. Alternatively won’t the new student block have space for artists?
I think you are right Casey Like neighbouring Greenwich a lot of the local population are on low incomes or and do require access to good value food superrmarkets and stores.
Amother point to beto shop more often getting some shopping on the way home from work etc.
Not only it is convenient to shop locally it cuts down on food wastage as people buy just what they need for a few days rather than buying food that goes out of date and gets thrown away.