Peabody announce consultation on more housing near Abbey Wood station

Peabody are to hold consultation on plans to develop housing on the former Harrow Inn pub site in Abbey Wood.

The pub was locally listed but knocked down by developers a number of years ago before Peabody took control of the site. Local listing offers little protection in law compared to national listing. The former developers barely even secured the site after demolition.

The adjacent former Threshers shop was also recently purchased by Peabody.

There were previous plans for the site before Peabody purchased the land and they weren’t bad. A commercial space on the ground floor with housing above. Not particularly tall either.

I’m sure many will want and hope for low rise here but this is a site a minute from Abbey Wood Crossrail station and there’s a dire housing shortage.

It’s understandable for people in secured social rents or homeowners to want low rise but the ever increasing number in expensive and insecure private rentals are desperate for new homes.

And that means 2-3 storey buildings near a major station in a city rising by over 100,000 people a year just isn’t sensible unless you want people to live way out in say, the middle of Kent, and have to spend two hours travelling each way to work.

With one side of the development site being next to Harrow Manorway dual carriageway I’d expect the tallest element there and then tapering down towards Knee Hill.

If the above image isn’t too clear you can attend the event on Thursday 15th March at 3-7pm at Abbey Wood Community Hall, 4 Knee Hill, SE2.