Plans for hundreds of student rooms in Woolwich town centre have been approved by Greenwich Council – and hundreds more could be on their way.
Former council offices at Riverside House that are currently being used as artists’ studios will be redeveloped and turned into 332 student rooms along with a 265-room hotel, with part of the building demolished to create a new public space.
Across Beresford Street, plans for a 12-storey block of 120 student rooms were also approved by Greenwich’s planning board on Tuesday evening. This development, next to the Premier Inn, will form an extension to a 298-room, 14-storey student block already being built on the site of the Woolwich Catholic Club, which is due to be finished by September 2026.
The developers behind both new schemes want to have them completed by September 2027 – raising the prospect that in less than three years, a new community of 750 students will be living between the Royal Arsenal and Powis Street.
That number could more than double in years to come with separate plans for over 900 rooms on Macbean Street – opposite the Catholic Club site – submitted to the council last November.
The developments would go some way to reestablishing Woolwich as a thriving centre for students, decades after the University of Greenwich – which also had halls of residence in the area – moved to the Old Royal Naval College in 2001.
The Riverside House development would divide the block into two separate buildings, the student accommodation and a Holiday Inn Express. An extra three floors would be added to the 14-storey tower to accommodate the student rooms.
Bob McCurry, a planning consultant representing the developer CityInc, said the building was “in need of regeneration”.
The building is currently home to 300 artists’ studios run by the charity SET, which specialises in using buildings awaiting redevelopment. About 600 artists use the space.
Asked by Kidbrooke Village councillor Dave Sullivan about what would happen to the artists, CityInc’s Bob Secker said: “We really are targeting getting on site as soon as possible.
“The existing tenant’s business model depends on meanwhile use schemes, because it enables them to charge their tenants heavily subsidised rents.
“We understand they’ve secured four new sites to put their existing tenants into and they are in communication with Greenwich for vacant buildings and they feel very confident that they will be able to rehouse the tenants that are current operating from the site.”
Sandra Bauer, the vice-chair of planning, said she once worked for Riverside House’s owners who had told her the building had “concrete cancer” and was not expected to last for very long.
Paul Wells, the architect replied: “We’ve done all the assessments on the building, we’re reducing the load on it by stripping off the existing cladding, but there’s no concerns over the structural security of the building.”
An extension to the part of the building that would become a hotel had been limited to two storeys, rather than three, because of its capacity, he added.
The extension to the block on the Woolwich Catholic Club, from the developer Hurlington, site was opposed by one resident of the block behind in the Royal Arsenal, Ocean House.
Berkeley Homes had previously been given permission to build a slightly taller block, on the same site but had dropped its plans after new fire regulations made development more difficult.
Malcolm Corbett said he and his neighbours had lost daylight since the “enormous” Catholic Club development had started and the problem would only get worse with the extension.
David Gardner, a Greenwich Peninsula councillor, said that while he sympathised, the planning board’s hands were tied by the previous permission given to Berkeley Homes.
Sullivan supported both schemes, but said he was suspicious about the number of students coming through, and quizzed both developers on when the developments would be finished.
“We all know what the situation is with the market, regionally and nationally,” he said. “I am suspicious that there might be another agenda taking place.”
In Greenwich, developers also pay less in community infrastructure levy for student housing than they would do in traditional homes.
Harry De Lotbiniere, of Hurlington, said: “There is a number of student developments coming forward across London and that’s a result of the need for them. Greenwich has one of the highest proportions of full-time students to student accommodation.”
He said he had been in talks with Ravensbourne, Greenwich and East London universities about housing their students,
Both schemes were approved unanimously by the planning board. Approving the extension to the Catholic Club scheme, Bauer said: “I’m excited that Wolwich can become a student town again. I used to work at the University of Greenwich when it was in Woolwich, it was so vibrant when there were students around – it was a fantastic economic bonus.”
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