Major plans for hundreds of homes, a cinema and new shops around Woolwich’s old public market have been delayed by another year, The Greenwich Wire can reveal.
Work on Woolwich Exchange, which will include 801 homes, is not due to start until May 2025 because the plans have to be reworked to comply with new fire regulations. Work had been due to start next month.
The scheme was given permission in May 2021 and Greenwich Council was granted a compulsory purchase order in July last year to buy 52 properties surrounding the market – many of them home to small businesses.
However, little has happened since then, and while traders were told of the hold-up in December, no public announcement was made until The Greenwich Wire contacted the town hall on Monday, after which the Woolwich Exchange website was also quietly amended.
Greenwich Council now hopes to take over the site in March next year before passing it onto the developer.
The delay is the latest hitch to the flagship development, which the council hopes will bridge the divide between the Royal Arsenal and Woolwich’s traditional town centre.
One of the developers, St Modwen, pulled out of the scheme last year, leaving Notting Hill Genesis in charge of the project through Spray Street Quarter LLP, a subsidiary company. The cost was put at £400 million three years ago – a sum that is likely to have grown substantially since then.
Many major building projects are having to be revised because of the new fire rules, which have been brought in after the Grenfell Tower disaster. All new buildings over 18 metres – about six storeys – now need to have a second staircase. Woolwich Exchange includes five tall blocks, including two of 23 storeys.
The original plans for the site, filed six years ago, caused a public outcry after proposing the mass demolition of shops and workspace mostly belonging to ethnic minority businesses. There were also plans to demolish the public market, which opened in 1936 and is unique because of its German design, more commonly found in military buildings.
Those plans were scrapped after Historic England listed the public market, which was briefly used as a street food venue but has sat mostly disused for the past five years.
A new version of the scheme, retaining the market and some buildings on Woolwich New Road, was put forward in 2020, but with cuts to “affordable” housing on the site, with just 14 per cent of homes allocated for people on the borough’s waiting list.
The plans were approved the following year, but with councillors voicing strong reservations about the scheme because of its height and cuts to “affordable” housing.
A council spokesperson told The Greenwich Wire: Construction was due to start in May 2024, but the developer has now revised the expected start date to May 2025. The main reason for this revision is changes to national building fire safety regulations which, after some delay, have now been introduced by central government.
“ The final proposed design changes will need to be discussed with the council, as the local planning authority. The changes to the programme and the reasons for them were communicated to landowners, tenants and occupiers within the Woolwich Exchange site by letter in December 2023, with an update this month.
“The earliest date that vacant possession of properties will be required is March 2025. All occupiers will be given six months’ notice under the CPO process before they need to leave. The council is working closely with those affected to provide support and advice on their options for relocation.
“Once complete, the project will deliver hundreds of new homes, including affordable housing, as well as a new public square, leisure facilities and a range of shops and restaurants. The development includes works to revitalise the former covered market building, with this historically significant community asset brought back into public use.”
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