THE SOUTHBANK area around Blackfriars Bridge is to become a new ‘quarter’ of London, complete with nine new tower blocks, a shopping centre and a big public square.
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Out of those nine high-rises, the tallest, known as One Blackfriars, has already been through the planning process mill and is now set to become the centrepiece of the £1 billion development.
Assuming it gets the go-ahead from councils and government, the wider Blackfriars scheme envisaged by developers Carlyle would, by 2020, provide 500 homes, hundreds of shops and 450,000 square feet of office space as well as nearly 2,000 new permanent jobs.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to truly regenerate and reinvigorate a large, important and extremely well located, but under utilised, site right on the River Thames,” said Mark Harris, Carlyle Group Managing Director.
“We plan to replace the existing impermeable block structures with a new, highly accessible urban quarter complete with new residential, retail and office facilities, as well as cultural centres and large new public spaces right on the riverbank.”
Meanwhile, the open public space theme is continued along the river further west where industrial wasteland between Battersea and Vauxhall is to be turned into a “walking and cycling paradise”.
