Looking at Greenwich Peninsula Part 3: New towers and schools

Over the past week this site has featured a couple of posts looking at developments on Greenwich Peninsula.

Firstly, there was a look at the Ikea site as construction is well underway. I followed up with a look at a forthcoming shopping centre in the o2 due to open this year with at least 80 shops and restaurants.

This time around I’ll be taking a look at other developments underway in the area.

Let’s start with Knight Dragon’s huge housing development which is visible as soon as leaving the tube station.

A number of blocks stretch along the Thames to the cable car.

This part of the peninsula has been named Upper Riverside by developer Knight Dragon and comprises 1007 homes.

Future design district and market

Little preparatory work is evident at the design district and market planned on  greenery here:

The market plans were previously covered here.

Further south and many homes have now completed. A greater number of “affordable” homes have been located down here than by the tube station.

What is noticeable in this area is the sheer lack of things to do. For an area of thousands of homes the level of amenities is poor.

The above building does have community facilities but for such a high density area facilities are lacking. There’s a few here and there, such as the Pilot pub, but hardly a great choice. Let’s hope more is to come.

Sure, the o2 is nearby, but that’s hardly a community space where you’ll bump into neighbours. West Greenwich is pretty close too, but has awful pedestrian links.

New school

Nearby are buildings that’ll make up St Mary Magdalene’s through-school. This will have a very large intake of 1,646 pupils and approximately 200 staff with a 26-place nursery, a 420 pupil primary school, 900-place secondary school and 300-place sixth form.

The buildings look deceptively small.

The roads around it are still poor on one side, as extensively covered before. The design seems to think that by turning its back on adjacent dual carriageways and huge roundabouts on one side of the site pupils won’t walk that way.

That seems quite optimistic and not particularly understanding of what teenagers do. Many will be nipping to Mcdonald’s nearby or the takeaways in east Greenwich for lunch or after finishing time. Which means traversing those roads.

Precision

Finally, now poking up on the horizon is Precision, with nearly 300 homes.

It’s directly next to Enderby Wharf which is seeing the final blocks of phase 1 approach completion.

I recently wrote about how Precision alone has brought £2.3 million to Greenwich Council in Section 106 payments.

Please help support covering local news and issues. Donations can be made to me to help run the site at Patreon.com/themurkydepths 

Many thanks