Shaping Southwark: location, location, location
If there’s one element of regeneration that frustrates everyone from developers and residents to planners and politicians, it’s the length of time the process takes. “Cat years,” observes Southwark Council’s new executive member for regeneration Paul Noblet, with a wry smile. But, as he rightly points out, this London borough already has some pretty impressive achievements under its belt, which were all worth the wait. Most obvious is the transformation of Southwark’s riverfront – with Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market to name but a few – into arguably becoming the capital’s tourist and cultural centre. As the Tate’s deputy director Alex Beard said in the last issue of Southwark on the motivation behind its planned extension: “It’s being driven by the extraordinary success of the museum. By this stage [eight
years after opening] we thought we’d be doing well if we reached one million visitors. But last year we reached five million and the average has been four million since we opened.” Sitting alongside these worldclass attractions are some of the newest and hottest commercial developments, like the mixed-use 280,000sq m More London, home to heavyweights such as Hilton, Ernst & Young and mayor Boris Johnson himself. Another noteworthy addition is the almost complete Bankside123 scheme. IPC Media has been in situ at Bankside 1 for a year now while Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is about to occupy almost 40,000sq m in buildings two and three. Mike Hussey, managing director of developer Land Securities’ London portfolio says RBS’s occupation vindicates the decision to construct Shaping Southwark