A new block of flats to be built close to Oxleas Wood will lose its distinctive colouring and have a floor lopped off under updated plans submitted to Greenwich Council.

Meridian Home Start, a company spun off from the council nearly a decade ago, won permission in 2024 for a seven-storey block with 63 rented flats across the road from Falconwood station.

The company has wanted to build flats on the site at Shepherd Leas for some years, having had an earlier plan for a nine-storey block rejected first by the council, then by a planning inspector, because it would intrude into views from the woods.

Now Meridian, which will offer the flats at 65 per cent of market rents, has teamed up with the Bromley-based developer Pure Lake for what it hopes will be the final instalment of the saga – a six-storey block with a less obvious taller element in the corner, still with 63 flats. 

One objector – Charlie Davis, now a local Conservative councillor – had branded the scheme a “turquoise monstrosity” because of the colour of the cladding. 

But the new, smaller block will have buff brick cladding instead in an attempt to blend in with neighbouring houses. The development has been called Chase Gardens on Meridian Home Start’s website.

Render of Shepherds Leas block
Meridian Home Start had hoped to build the nine-storey block at Falconwood… Image: Meridian Home Start/Cartwright Pickard
Render of new scheme
…then a seven storey block was approved. Image: Meridian Home Start/Cartwright Pickard

The land, which is on the borough boundary with Bexley, is currently home to 17 flats that used to be owned by the Crown Estates. Greenwich Council bought the land to enable the development, which it is helping fund with £8.1 million.

While the nine-storey block generated a storm of protest, there were still objections to the seven-storey version, including from Bexley Council, which raised fears about residents parking on its side of the road.

Comparison of pictures of new blocks
The six-storey scheme, left, compared with the seven-storey “turquoise” block. Image: Hyland Edgar Driver/Meridian Home Start

Meridian Home Start is a community benefit society that was spun out of the council in 2016 to provide cheaper private rented housing for borough residents. It has built homes in Eltham, Kidbrooke, Charlton and Woolwich.

Last month it won permission to convert the old Simba House in Woolwich into flats, and to build a five-storey block on vacant land next to St Paul’s Academy in Abbey Wood.

The full plans for Shepherd Leas are on the Greenwich Council planning website.

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