Historic industrial buildings in Charlton could be knocked down to make way for a data centre the size of 14 football pitches, early plans submitted to Greenwich Council reveal.
But part of a previously hidden narrow-gauge railway would remain as part of the huge development close to the River Thames.
The developer GLI plans to build the 100,000-square metre centre on land off Anchor & Hope Lane, near the River Thames and behind housing at Atlas Gardens and Derrick Gardens. It also plans to build space for small businesses and the community. Work could start in 2028 and be finished by 2033.
Most of the site had been previously been earmarked for housing. Plans for 771 homes were comprehensively rejected by the government in 2020 after being thrown out by both the council and Sadiq Khan, the mayor. GLI has already had plans for a warehouse approved.
Only limited details have so far emerged about the data centre project, and this application is a technical one asking council planning officers if an environmental impact assessment needs to be carried out. A full application is expected in the coming months.
The site combines part of a trading estate and the former home of Stone Foundries, one of the area’s last remaining major industrial concerns. The company, which played a key role in making ship propellers in the Second World War, moved to Kent in 2020.
Three of Stone’s buildings are on Greenwich’s local heritage list, and two face demolition if the scheme goes ahead: one known as the Odeon building, because its design is reminiscent of the art deco cinemas of the time, and the laboratory building. However, the company’s offices are due to remain as part of the plan.
Other historic buildings will go too, although these are not locally listed – the Jubilee Foundry and Magnesium Foundry, which were also part of the Stone site. Old ropeworks buildings will also face the bulldozer.
Part of the Charlton Ropeworks narrow-gauge railway remains intact on the site, and a section of this will be kept as a landscaping feature in the new development. The ropeworks was later known as Bridon Ropes and its former works football team still plays in Charlton.
The growth of data centres to power the AI boom has proved controversial because of their water and electricity consumption, but two years ago the government declared them critical national infrastructure.
GLI says that the Charlton centre will restrict its water consumption by using a “dry” cooling system, reusing water rather than continually drawing fresh supplies from the mains.
The huge Docklands Data Campus is currently under construction across the Thames in west Silvertown, while at the weekend The Sunday Times reported that residents in Park Royal, west London, were complaining about noise from a pair of recently-built units.
More could be on their way: The Sunday Times also reported that Greenwich borough had capacity for 182 data centres connected to the grid, the 13th highest number in the country, although lower than Dartford (399), Tower Hamlets (495), Newham (580) and Havering (900).
In the longer term, there are still hopes that 8,000 new homes will be built across the wider Charlton riverside, which the council recently teamed up with City Hall to promote. The data centre development is also next to a cleared site awaiting one of those developments, Herringham Quarter, with 1,200 new homes planned.
However, the loss of such a large site to a data centre signals what is already in the council’s draft Local Plan – that new housing developments in the area will end up being taller to compensate, despite earlier suggestions that the riverside would be largely low-rise.
Questions will also be asked about how the data centre will fit in with wider infrastructure needs across the area, such as long-held council ambitions to build an east-west road across the area, although these seem to have faded in recent years.
The application can be seen on the Greenwich Council planning website.
• Plans to open up the old Stone Foundries site as an outdoor events space will be heard at a licensing meeting on Wednesday after the planned meeting last month was abruptly postponed at short notice. Police have raised objections that Charlton station, which is unstaffed at night, cannot cope with late-night crowds.
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