Elephant and Castle towers on former shopping centre near completion

A number of towers constructed on the former Elephant & Castle shopping centre are nearing completion.

The site sits directly beside Elephant and Castle station and saw the 1960s shopping centre close in 2020 and demolished in 2021.

It was time warp before closure with some shops not updating their frontages for years with wrecking balls approaching.

That Greggs frontage photo above isn’t taken in the 1990s but the late 2010s.

Since then towers have risen across the site which when complete will see 1,000 homes and 2,000 jobs in a number of fields.

There’s not a great deal of variety on tower design so far. All a bit monolithic.

A new campus for UAL’s London College of Communications is part of the site with signage adorning one building.

The LCC will vacate buildings over the road which in turn will be demolished with further towers constructed in coming years.

Shops

Site developer Delancey who are behind the project states former shopping centre independent traders will have first right of refusal to return to the affordable retail spaces.

A temporary trading area the other side of the station named Elephant Square hasn’t been a great success with trader complaints over charges for utilities and footfall.

Restaurants and other retail space is promised at the base of new buildings with pedestrian routes through the site.

Station

As towers rose much work has been underway to improve access for those using the tube.

It’s a different story for the railway station served by Thameslink and Southeastern. There’s little evidence of any works at all.

The old shopping centre had a direct access to the station before demolition.

Rail links are excellent from Elephant and Castle with ten trains between 8am and 9am towards London Blackfriars, with eight continuing onwards to City Thameslink, Farringdon and St Pancras before heading to various destinations.

There’s four trains departing between 8:14 and 8:24 alone.

Despite the appeal for thousands of future inhabitants and visitors of a frequent, fast service into the heart of London no upgrade work has been undertaken by Network Rail. Southwark Council have allowed Community Infrastructure Levy income for a study, but with the tower occupation imminent nothing has been built.

It’s barely staffed, has no ticket gates and cramped staircases to access platforms.

For such a central station with many services usage appears extremely low though did increase from 1.9 million journeys a year to 2.2 million in latest figures. Still, for Zone 1 that’s very poor.

Tube upgrade

Compare the railway station’s lack of progress thus far to a vast project currently being undertaken by Transport for London at the tube station. A new station box features 1,700 square metres of new concourse space for passengers. Upon opening it’ll house a new Northern line entrance and ticket hall.

Following the station box works 135 metres of new passenger tunnels will commence next year for opening in late 2027.

It’s another example of National Rail provision in areas of major development falling far short of measures taken by Transport for London. A pattern seen in areas whether served by both rail and tube or only National Rail.

Kidbrooke is another that springs to mind. A total of 6,500 new homes in the town and a small box of a station building was built, which is often shut due to a lack of staff.

See also the struggle to get a second station entrance in Lewisham despite thousands of homes both recently built and forthcoming. Elsewhere in London the Great Northern route is also a bit of a time warp at stations such as Highbury & Islington and Essex Road.

Opening

Get Living will provide build to rent units on the Elephant and Castle site. They’re also in charge of many build to rent homes in Lewisham at the second and last Gateway site before a flood saw all residents vacated.

In some ways this site reminds me of Lewisham Gateway. Talk of a cinema and new shops. Through-routes across the site. Located beside busy stations.

In Lewisham no commercial units had opened but the time the flood hit. No cinema operator had been revealed. Elephant & Castle’s rebuild can’t get off to a worse start than that.