Amazing views over Woolwich now undergoing huge change

Last week construction sites in London held an open day where various sites were open to the public including towers under construction. One such site was one of Berkeley Homes’ forthcoming towers in Woolwich.

I didn’t make it but an excellent local photographer did. You can find his photographs and posts on Skyscrapercity here, his Twitter account here and a Wikipedia page and articles visible here.

The photos offer a great oversight of Woolwich in a massive state of change.

Here is preparatory work on towers to be built on the former Waterfront car park.

More information on these five planned towers can be seen on a previous post here.

Behind the site is Waterfront which will be moving to General Gordon Square after 2020 and then demolished.

Behind that is the long vacant site where Mast Quay towers are planned, covered at the end of this post.

Meridian Home Start

Turning to the south and we see the low-rise Lidl on the far left of Riverside house. A prime candidate for a rebuild with new homes above the supermarket.

We can also see Callis Yard tower on the right rising beside Greenwich Council’s Riverside House.

Last week Greenwich Council finalised the sale of Riverside House though we don’t have confirmation of who to.

In 2014 Greenwich Council rejected the chance to work alongside a private developer to build homes.

Will it be sold to Greenwich Council’s housing developer off-shoot Meridian Homes who alone could construct high density at this spot using market sales to cross-subsidise low cost homes, or have they sold the entire site to a private developer for short term gain but long term cost?

So far Meridian Home Start have mainly built very low density homes which is not going to sort the housing crises any time soon. It needs to be far bolder and more ambitious and move into mid and high density buildings (in the right areas) to alleviate shortages. This is one such obvious area.

Arsenal site

This view shows the near-completed Pavilion Square mid-rise red brick blocks and the Crossrail station site. Beyond that will see 742 homes under Spray Street plans.

Kleon has also taken some photos of other sites in the area under construction. One is the block built beside Woolwich Town Hall which replaced a former cinema and cultural centre. Since approval the developers have gained the green light for another floor on top.

They are now attempting to add another. Let’s hope those retail units don’t lie empty for years as so many do.

To the right is the Island College site.

This is due to be demolished with a new development comprising 310 homes, shops and a cinema as covered here.

Just up the hill is another large housing development at the former Ogilby on Wellington Street.

This development was previously covered here.

And finally a smaller site a fair distance away from Woolwich town centre but of interest as this is being built on a former pub site.

It’s yet another pub that has been demolished. Last week the site covered news that the Lord Hood in Greenwich is to be demolished next month and the Thames around the corner is again threatened with demolition.

Once again, a massive thanks to Kleon for allowing these photos to be used. You can find his photographs and posts on Skyscrapercity here, his Twitter account here and a Wikipedia page and articles visible here.

 

You can support the site through Paypal with a one-off or monthly donation here

Another option is via Patreon with offers monthly payments by clicking here

Finally there's the Ko-fi option

Many thanks

There's also a Facebook page for the site here