Lewisham seek ideas for Ladywell Playtower’s future
Lewisham Council have launched a consultation seeking ideas for the future of the Ladywell Playtower.
The authority formally pulled the plug on a prior agreement with developer Guildmore last month.
That followed inaction since a 2022 deal to build a four-screen cinema and 33 homes on site. An agreement with Guildmore stretched back as far as 2017.
Lewisham council stated today: “This new Restoration Partner Search will run from December 2025 to late 2026 and is designed to secure a viable proposal for renewal and re-use that is deliverable, financially viable and shaped by local priorities.”
A website to give feedback as well as for potential developers to submit expressions of interested can be found here.
The building was a swimming pool until 1965. It’s Grade II listed but in a poor state of repair.
It woukd be nice to see it remain for community use or possibly to house vulnerable people in supported housing for example to provide safe homes for them Sob they can live independently..
Do you think Lewisham has the many, many millions that your suggestion would take to create a few housing units from this wreck of a building and keep the building as a heritage site? If Lewisham want to do that then it would be far better off on a cleared site where they could erect buildings without the emotion, shackles and cost of this site.
My guess is that the local people of Ladywell will lobby for it to become a healing crystal centre for the clueless and install a not for profit cinema where staff costs bankrupt it in months. Then it closes after gross mismanagement. And then it’ll fall into disrepair again and is squatted. I say let Lewisham do what they want with the building, and I hope that well-meaning locals accept that the council/developers don’t have a bottomless pit of money.
@Chris: ‘I say let Lewisham do what they want with the building …’. It can’t because it is grade ll listed.
‘I hope that well-meaning locals accept that the council/developers don’t have a bottomless pit of money.’ The council doesn’t, but a “big developer” could allocate some of its considerable profit. Ladywell playtower could be sensitively renovated and it wouldn’t cost a fortune.
Your attitude is why Lewisham town centre is ringed by shitty little boxes in the sky of no architectural merit whatsoever.