Lewisham: New station entrance and taller tower coming? Demolition of Carpetright begins
Areas around the former Carpetright store in Lewisham are being cleared for demolition after plans for hundreds of homes on the site were submitted in 2017.
The shop itself has since closed and remained empty for some time. Initial tower plans were revised in December 2018 with the height of the main tower possibly rising to 35-floors.
In 2017 the plan was for a 30-floor tower and 247 flats directly beside Lewisham station, with a new station entrance. Despite five stories difference the new height would be less than 5 metres taller at 110 metres. For comparison, that’s less than half the height of Canary Wharf.
I really wasn’t keen on the 2017-18 plans which were drab and poorly integrated at street level. This appears to be improved under revised plans:
A new entrance to the railway station will be welcome given how crowded the platforms and tunnels are now becoming but will not address issues of train capacity.
A Bakerloo Line station is planned directly to the north of this site on what is currently a bus waiting area – though that’s a decade off at least.
New site owners Tide Construction are looking at changing the tenure to predominantly student accommodation. Student blocks already exist on Thurston Road.
A construction schedule submitted this week shows that a planned completion date of August 2020.
The company has utilised a modular building system named “Vision Modular Systems” to speed up construction on other sites. In Wembley they constructed a 28-storey tower in just a year and only two years after an initial meeting with Brent Council. In Croydon they are aiming to build the worlds tallest modular structure.
Next door
Plans also exist for 536 flats next door on the site of Matalan and Sports Direct.
More towers are coming here:
Those plans were approved but little sign of progress has been made. Legal & General brought the plans forward though the website for the site is now down.
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I think the new Lewisham Station entrance will be very welcomed by commuters using the station, The tunnels are very cramped and busy at peak times. Following recent reports of crime taking place at the station I hope security and CCTV will also be improved.
If Crossrail is anything to go by then I think it could be 15 to 20 years before we see the Bakerloo Line coming to Lewisham rather than 10 years or so as suggested for the opening of the Lewisham Bakerloo Line extension.
Hello, would the proposed flats replacing sports direct block renaissance view of Canary Wharf? This would be unacceptable.