Woolwich town centre development taking shape
Work on a new leisure centre in Woolwich to replace the Waterfront is taking shape.
The external appearance is ever more evident as cladding is applied on the façade facing General Gordon Square.
Construction has seen bus stops closed outside what was formerly Viscount House housing Wilkinson’s in its time, as well as Barclays, Somerfield, Blockbusters and Gateway among others.
That building only dated from the 1980s, and once complete the existing 1980s leisure centre beside the Thames will be demolished.
Facilities
The new centre will contain three pools and a cafe, alongside much else you’d expect. A gym etc.
While the owners of a pub located to the rear were evicted, there’s no sign of much happening with the residential element of the development.
While little happens there (the projects only been on the cards for 15 years), Greenwich Council are spending another £48.5 million including Mayoral funds buying existing homes instead of building new, which will in turn place ever more strain on private renters and is likely to force some to seek homelessness assistance.
Not that the housing element of this scheme will do much to help with the housing crises which has seen costs balloon as those designated as homeless rose from 443 in 2015/16 to 2,000 now.
Just 24 out of 482 planned homes will be net new social housing yet the authority have the gall to emblazon “new affordable homes” on hoardings despite pitiful numbers.
It’s PR hogwash of the most offensive kind; to those in need of a secure home, to those in poor quality temporary housing and to every resident who sees services cut while ever more is spent on temporary and emergency housing due to the severe shortage.
Financial mess
Meanwhile another £5 million is going on hotel costs owing to a shortage of council housing.
As for the structure it’s all pretty dull really. Here’s the view seen from across General Gordon Square.
It’s supposed to complete by late next year – though like many other major projects there’s been silence for some time in recent council reports and meetings.
That includes both the centre and housing. There’s also silence on the fate of Waterfront.
Used for public housing in part as a council development alone or joint venture? Utilise council company Meridian Homestart?
Short term sell-off to let private developer reap the rewards? Disused for many years like the Arches in Greenwich?
Running a site alone takes time and a fair bit of money. Adverts are far from enough to cover it and my living costs as a private renter.
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Passive approach to so much at Greenwich: just look at the photos. In the 21st century, all we get is concrete rectangles. Seriously? We vote for councillors (a) to protect us from rampaging developers; (b) to raise building standards; and (c) to house people who have no options and give them a springboard to a better future. Do we get these things in our ‘royal’ borough?
Absolutely not androsypial. Anything but. Sadly I cannot see anything improving anytime soon. We hope for real change but it never truly comes just more of the same.
We live in a great Borough with some nice areas and open spaces. I just wish the council would invest more in public realm improvements to tidy the Borough up. Public realm is appalling many parts of the Borough. My understanding is money is given to the Council by Developers to provide public realm and public transport improvements around new developments.
Thus applies to all Councils across the Country and not only to Greenwich or other London Boroughs.
The building is ok I don’t mind that. Pretty reserved.
I wouldn’t blame most Greenwich councillors either as the borough has launched Greenwich Builds which is a model many councils could follow – and could and should go further. Unfortunately the new Labour govt seems to hate such direct council building (see Reeves’ comments) and thus a solution to the crisis seems far away. They’re fixated on past failures – and repeating them.