Work now underway at Lewisham Gateway: New cinema, tower, homes and shops coming
Construction vehicles have rolled onto a large patch of land in Lewisham town centre as preliminary work begins on a large new development bringing homes, shops and a cinema.
Get Living will provide 649 homes for private rent with the tallest building topping out at 30 floors.
A cinema is planned and will be the last to arrive. Delays have pushed it to 2023.
Phase 1 saw four blocks built with the final completed in 2019.
Lewisham Gateway phase 2 has seen delays with the site laying empty since the roundabout was removed some years ago. In the recent past work was due to begin in winter 2019, then spring and finally summer 2020 due to recent events.
Block 1 faces bus stops along Rennell Street. Buildings are pretty monolithic on this stretch with slab massing:
A central spine through the site will connect Lewisham station, Confluence Place and the town centre.
The path through the centre will link to a current road crossing shown below installed when roads were reworked:
Like many shopping centres, the Lewisham Centre line for redevelopment.
In 2018 owners Land Securities stated: “We see excellent potential for a new town centre at Lewisham, with our ownership of Lewisham Shopping Centre, SE13 forming the core of a potential 8.3 acre mixed use destination”.
This development is close to Lewisham Exchange which is now seeing a 34-storey tower rising off Loampit Vale. That is predominantly for students.
New shops? There are currently units in the shopping centre that have not re-opened and H Samuel has gone. However, I welcome the return of a cinema as I remember both the Odeon and Studios 6 and 7.
I actually met the lead masterplanner for Lewisham Gateway – he was waxing lyrical about how amazing the new road layout is and how much easier it is to navigate as a pedestrian through Lewisham!…(he didn’t live anywhere near Lewisham and evidently hadn’t been back) its a nightmare
Oh wow Tony! I wish you’d taken the opportunity to ‘have a word’. He buggered everything up big time!
Omg since they have rearranged the road outlay,there have been more accidents, no improvement,
Cinema is brilliant, more shops ,we have loads of empty shops, more housings !!!!!!
How many homes can you cram into one area , more cars ,no where to park,
It’s bad enough spending a hour driving around to find a place to park , I am disabled
I agree Chris.
I think the cinema will be good for the people of Lewisham when finally built and opened.
Residents do need some more family friendly venues in the Borough to visit with their children, family and friends.
Anonymous486201. I also remember the Odeon and Studios 6 and 7. It was a shame so many cinemas closed as more people turned to watching videos (as it was then) at home.
I hope the tower that is under construction for privately rented flats will have rents set at more affordable rates for local people.
However, Like Greenwich Borough the Borough of Lewisham is seeing major developments and growth in the local population with out improvements in the local infrastructure including GP Surgeries, Hospitals and bus services.
Longer trains for the DLR have been delayed and there is no increase in rail services either on the Bexleyheath and Blackheath Line which serves both Kidbrooke and Lewisham which have both seen major developments already with more homes planned or under construction.
Just turn the land into a park!!!! How much nicer would that feel walking out of the DLR in Lewisham? The DLR is already overcrowded and packed in the mornings- when everything returns to normal again- it is going to be a travelling nightmare. No planning for this. Please stop building so many highly dense tall buildings- these investment boxes do nothing for the community but leave it a sterile place, lacking atmosphere.
@Chris, agreed. The road layout frequently causes gridlock and the bus stops are so far apart.
@Graham, I think I read in another piece by Murkey that the 30 storey tower is going to be student accommodation, presumably at the market rate. Lewisham council is no better than Greenwich and cares little about social housing or affordable rents.
Forgot to say that DLR trains probably cannot be longer on some routes because of short platforms. At Cutty Sark, for instance, doors in the first and last carriage do not open.
So now with so many predicted redundancy s and the death of retail are they still pushing ahead with this?
Lewisham Council… You are a disgrace! More private housing… No social housing? Damien Egan! Where is your commitment to local people.
I agree with many comments though some talking about no need for shops have to remember the idea is just a few with thousands of people living seconds away. It’s not like those tucked away in the shopping centre. Even a general downturn in shops or cafes wouldn’t affect places in the midst of thousands of residents. They’ll always be people willing to pop in.
Open areas are just over the road. I believe this park was upgraded using funds from previous development at Loampit Vale. Residents will also have Loampit Vale leisure centre very close by plus loads of things like the market.
New DLR trains are coming I read on here once. Not sure when.
New trains are on the way, but not necessarily more carriages. As I said above, platforms are short on some routes.
It’s funny to think that a scheme like this from the 60s or 70s would be described as dystopian yet we seem to have forgotten the lessons – good and bad – learnt from this era.
The proposed towers are just as bland as the worst designed of previous years, except they will not be as socially accessible, and I do not see how the spacing will produce decent open areas for the residents. It’s certainly not clear from the images. (And filling the tower being built at the moment at Lewisham Exchange with students is a cynical way of cashing in on short-term student needs while ignoring more pressing local needs. Interesting to think what how the Covid 19 impact of education will affect developments such as this one.)
As for Lewisham Gateway, to think that this spot was a built up urban quarter (with an amazing cinema: https://lewishamlostcinemas.wordpress.com/lewishams-lost-cinemas/) that was then sacrificed for a road scheme and is now being rebuilt as a residential quarter (with some commercial thrown in). The centre still bears the scars of the road scheme and shopping centre (which interestingly Pevsner approved of). I hope future planners think long and hard.
The scheme is monolithic and I can see them as the slums of the future.
I have known Lewisham for more than 40 years and remember when you could buy nearly everything you could desire, dine out and visit the cinema. It’s a travesty what is happening now.
Why can’t we have a shopping centre similar to the Glades in Bromley a variety of shops and restaurants what we have at the moment is limited this would encourage people to spend more money in Lewisham and they wouldn’t need to go up town or elsewhere to get better all round selection of there shopping and social needs.
Pat Lucic