Regeneration and Development

The Council has prepared a draft document called the Lewisham Town Centre Area Action Plan. This document will provide a range of proposals for improving the Lewisham Town Centre and supporting its regeneration. The key aim is to create a town centre which looks and functions as a 21st century shopping centre. The Area Action Plan recognises that people need to live, work and play in a pleasant environment and aims to address things which the community want to see changed or improved.

Some of the major schemes which are proposed to be delivered by 2016 include:

• £250 million scheme known as the ‘Lewisham Gateway’ which will create more homes, shops, offices, leisure facilities, bars, cafes and open space.
• Major road infrastructure improvements to better manage the traffic into and out of the town centre.
• Major refurbishment of the existing shopping centre
• More housing and commercial shops in the town centre
• Major improvements to the Rivers Quaggy and Ravensbourne
• Safer and easy access to Lewisham Railway station
• Major improvements to Lewisham Market

For more information on the Lewisham Area Action Plan go to http://www.lewisham.gov.uk

Major developments within the plan include:

Cornmill Gardens

Cornmill gardens is the new open space for Lewisham Town Centre. It provides shoppers and visitors access to the River Ravensborne, which has been released from its concrete walls. The new river banks have been planted with a selection of native plans and trees, and there are signs of naturally occurring native plants establishing themselves.

Situated just off Loampit Vale, this is the first of three new open spaces planned for Lewisham Town Centre. The project has been jointly funded through the Urban Renaissance in Lewisham Programme and Lewisham Council.

The Lewisham Gateway Development

Lewisham is a key location in South East London with existing public transport links to the city, Docklands and the whole Thames Gateway area. It has the potential to become one of the most exciting, dynamic and prosperous places in London to live work and play.

Lewisham Council along with the London Development Agency, London Buses, Transport for London, sought development partners to address the existing problems of the Lewisham Gateway area.

The Lewisham Gateway Development will feature over one million square feet of vibrant new shops, bars, cafés, restaurants, homes and offices in Lewisham Town Centre.

The plans include new leisure facilities as well as a landscaped park focused on the confluence of the two rivers and a new town square to create a stunning contemporary centre for Lewisham.
The application is for the mixed use redevelopment of the site for up to 100,000m². It is made up of retail, offices, hotel, residential, education, health and leisure premises, parking and associated infrastructure, open space and water features which could include:

• up to 12,000m² shops and professional services
• up to 4,000m² restaurants, cafés and drinking establishments
• up to 1,000m² hot food takeaways
• up to 8,000m² offices
• up to 3,000m² hotel
• up to 57,000m² residential
• up to 10,000m² education/health premises
• up to 5,000m² leisure premises
• provision of up to 500 car parking spaces

the revised road alignment of (part of) Lewisham High Street, Rennell Street, Molesworth Street and Loampit Vale. The outline application, which addresses the maximum amount of floorspace, building layout and maximum height of buildings, highway and river works, the new bus layover were approved in detail by Lewisham Council's strategic planning committee in October 2007.

The design of other buildings, materials, landscape and other details of the scheme will now be worked up with the Council and a Design & Access Panel. The application will be referred to the GLA and Secretary of State for Local Government and Communities for their sign-off before development can start.

For further information about the regeneration of Lewisham Town Centre http://www.lewisham.gov.uk

New leisure centre

The Council’s vision for Loampit Vale is to provide a high quality development which makes the most of its excellent location close to the public transport interchange and the new Lewisham Gateway scheme.
In June 2007 the Council consulted widely on the options for building a new centre at Loampit Vale or on the existing Ladywell Leisure Centre site.

The consultation showed that the views of local people were finely balanced between the two alternative sites. The deciding factors were the greater accessibility of the Loampit Vale site, being adjacent to a busy transport hub and, crucially, the ability to provide continuity of service from the current site in Ladywell until the new centre is completed. The new pool will be open in 2010 and is likely to be 25m long and 8 lanes wide.