Greenwich Council is hoping a new partnership with City Hall and Transport for London will help revive plans to regenerate the Charlton riverside.
There have long been plans for up to 8,000 new homes between the Greenwich Peninsula and Woolwich, but since plans to redevelop the area were first announced 14 years ago, just two flats have been finished and occupied.
The agreement comes as residents await confirmed plans for a new data centre on a site behind Anchor & Hope Lane – the first major development proposal for some years.
The area has long been identified for redevelopment by City Hall, and Greenwich Council put together masterplans in 2012 and 2017. But unlike the Greenwich Peninsula and Woolwich, development in Charlton has been hampered by the lack of a single large landowner who can co-ordinate development, while a lack of infrastructure has also been a factor.
Greenwich Council has been buying up land on the Charlton Riverside for some years. The council says it will work with the Greater London Authority and TfL with a strategic partnership board to “bring together planning, transport and regeneration” while the council will bring forward plans for its own sites.
The land will also be opened up for “meanwhile” or temporary uses “to activate sites, build confidence and create a sense of place as investment comes forward across the area”. One such meanwhile use – opening up the old Stone Foundries site as an outdoor events space – is awaiting a licensing hearing after the previous one was postponed last month at the last minute.
However, the plans are short of what had been mooted by some as the way forward – setting up a separate body with the powers to buy land and decide on planning issues itself, as is being used across the Old Oak Common site in west London where HS2 is being built. Instead, what is planned is described as a “public sector-led landowners’ partnership”.
Birthplace of the Addicks to a data centre?
From the Victorian era until the Second World War there was a thriving community in what was then known as New Charlton – a group of teenagers who lived in East Street, now Eastmoor Street, formed Charlton Athletic there in 1905.
But it was dominated by major industry, and plenty still remains – from barge workers’ cottages at Atlas and Derrick Gardens to bits of old ropeyard rails and tramway buried under undergrowth and tarmac. As industry faded, retailers moved in, with Makro replacing a greyhound stadium in the mid-1970s and Asda coming a decade later.
The major factories included the Siemens electrical works (closed 1968 with the loss of 6,000 jobs), the Johnsen and Jorgensen glassworks (closed 1981), Bridon Ropes (closed 1985, its former works football team still plays in Charlton) and the metal fabricators GA Harvey (which also closed in the early 1980s and was partly replaced by Asda). Stone Foundries stayed until 2020, the Cory bargeworks and an aggregate plant remain to the west.
But since the first Charlton Riverside masterplan was published in 2012, just two flats have been built and occupied – above and behind the old Victoria pub on Woolwich Road, which has been restored by franchisees for Domino’s Pizza, who initially won permission for one flat before reworking their plans. The landowners now have permission for a further four flats after winning an appeal against the council refusing an extension.
Behind the Victoria, a block of 67 flats at Evelyn House are awaiting occupation after being built by the Optivo housing association. This was initially refused by the council before being allowed on appeal.
Next to Evelyn House, a further 192 flats are due to be built at Coopers Yard. This scheme was again initially refused by the council but was waved through by a planning inspector.
Closer to the river, two sites have approval but little has happened. Over 1,200 homes were approved at Herringham Quarter, facing the Thames, in 2022, with plans for the first residents to move in this year. Part of the site – the old Maybanks paper recycling yard – has been cleared with little sign of further progress.
Next to the Thames Barrier, 500 homes at Flint Glass Wharf – the site of glassworks that closed in 1981 and now used for go-kart racing – were approved last year, with plans to start this year. Nothing has happened.
Plans for 395 homes at Faraday Works – the old Siemens factory – were withdrawn last year. The original scheme was for nearly 500 homes, but had to be rewritten after Historic England listed one of the surviving factory buildings. Planning documents published last year started that Greenwich Council had plans for land it owns at Penhall Road – where a Banksy artwork drew crowds two years ago – but nothing has come forward.
A controversial scheme by the developer Rockwell for 771 homes on the VIP Trading Estate off Anchor & Hope Lane – right next to existing houses at Alas and Derrick Gardens – were comprehensively rejected by the government in 2020 after being thrown out by both the council and Sadiq Khan, the mayor. Montreaux, another developer, bought the Stone Foundries site next door with plans for 1,200 homes that never went forward.
Both sites have now been combined into Charlton Gateway by another outfit, GLI, which is preparing an application for a data centre, substation and sites for small businesses. It has already had plans for logistics warehouse on part of the site approved.
The area also lacks connections with Silvertown on the north bank of the Thames, another major development area: architects have suggested a Thames Barrier bridge, although this plan has not been progressed.
What’s been said
Tom Copley, London’s deputy mayor for housing, said: “I am delighted that the long-term vision for Charlton Riverside has moved a step forward today as City Hall joins with partners to help unlock one of London’s biggest regeneration sites.
“The ambition is for this regeneration project to deliver around 8,000 new homes and 1,000 new jobs over the next 20 years, providing our capital with a vibrant new neighbourhood.
“The mayor and I are proud to work with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, TfL and partners to create an exciting new future for Charlton Riverside as we work to build a fairer, more prosperous London for everyone.”
Council leader Anthony Okereke said: “Charlton Riverside deserves good growth, good jobs and better transport. That won’t happen by accident – it requires leadership. That’s why I’m leading an interventionist council, bringing public bodies together, aligning public land and creating the certainty and confidence needed for investment.
“I believe the public sector should lead the market, not simply respond to it. That’s why today we’re taking three important steps to turn that vision into delivery: establishing a strategic partnership board with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London; signing a memorandum of understanding to strengthen our shared commitment to Charlton Riverside’s long-term regeneration; and bringing forward proposals to create a public sector-led landowners’ partnership, putting the public sector firmly in the driving seat for Charlton Riverside’s future.
“Together, these actions create the foundations for long-term regeneration that delivers thousands of new homes and jobs while putting local people first through better connections, greater opportunity and investment in their neighbourhood.”
Tom Creswell, the cabinet member for planning and development, said: ““This partnership is about creating a place that people are proud to call home.
“Charlton Riverside gives us the opportunity to create new streets, parks, schools, workplaces and homes alongside better connections to the Thames, while strengthening its role as one of London’s key industrial locations and supporting the continued growth of creative industries already practising their craft here.
“The vision has been there for years. Now, the organisations needed to make it happen are working together to move it forward.”
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