The bill for revamping Lewisham market and library has grown to over £30 million – with the council’s share of the cost growing sharply.

Structural issues with the library, a wartime find at the market and tough economic conditions are among the reasons for the increase, according to a council report.

Lewisham Council is part-way through a programme to refurbish the high street, with work well under way on a canopy so the historic market can operate in all weathers and in the evening.

It has also embarked on a long-delayed major refit of Lewisham Library, which will become a business and cultural hub when it reopens late next year.

Most of the cost is being met by the government, but the borough’s elected mayor Liam Shiristava and his cabinet will be asked next week to approve an increase in the total budget from £26 million to £30.4 million.

"Lewisham market" signs in from of H&M store
Some of the work has already been finished. Image: The Greenwich Wire

Lewisham won £19.1 million from in government levelling-up cash for the works in 2022, and had already committed itself to adding £6.9 million of its own cash. Now it will add a further £4.5 million to get the job done.

Since 2022 the project has been hit by “a series of macro-economic events that have affected the cost of materials, labour and completing complex structural projects”, the report says.

Some of the work – such as repaving the high street and market area along with new lighting and planting, has already been completed. The market’s servicing yard has also been improved. 

Construction site
Work on the market canopy was delayed after underground structures were found. Image: The Greenwich Wire
Render of Lewisham Market showing transparent roof
How the market canopy will look. Image: Studio Weave/Lewisham Council

The canopy, outside the former M&S store, is expected to be  completed in March. But the report suggests the discovery of a  wartime structure has held up work, although it does not elaborate on what that structure was. Some 51 people died in a flying-bomb attack on the M&S store in 1944.

Workers had “encountered difficult physical conditions, including exceptionally deep concrete, uncharted utilities and water infrastructure, and a previously uncharted underground structure associated with the wartime use of the site”, the report says. Lewisham Council has been asked what the structure was.

Building under scaffolding and wraps
Parts of Lewisham Library have had to be demolished. Image: The Greenwich Wire
Lewisham Library render
The council promises a “culture and business hub”, as well as the return of the library. Image: Lewisham Council

Delays to the library were confirmed in the summer: the council had previously said it would reopen this autumn. Issues included having to completely demolish part of the structure because it was found to be unsafe, having to work around hidden steel beams, discovering damaged concrete and needing to demolish an unsafe plant room on the roof.

A £10 million contract has been awarded to Blue Garage, which already runs a nearby workspace on Engate Street, to operate the business and cultural hub. 

The works on the high street are separate from the plans to redevelop Lewisham Shopping Centre and to reopen the Model Market, which are being undertaken by Landsec, the private developer that owns the land.

Signs in the shopping centre now promise that Model Market will reopen “this year” after another delay to the project, which was originally supposed to reopen in the spring.

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