FAQS

There is a very strong demand in the South Bank area for high quality office space. Companies are adapting to new working patterns and seeking modern, energy efficient workspaces with excellent public transport access, ideally close to culture and amenities.

Lambeth had the worst percentage change in numbers of office-based SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) (-38%) for any London borough between 2016 and 2020. It was the only London borough where this number went down over that period. This is largely related to progressive loss of offices (to residential) in Waterloo, Albert Embankment, and Vauxhall over several years, which has led to loss of all types of business in the borough and loss of jobs.

Whilst there are a number of schemes within close proximity to Royal Street, there are few opportunities to develop further new commercial office space.

With St Thomas’ Hospital and King’s College London’s (King’s) university health campus in close proximity, our ambition, which is shared by the NHS Trust, King’s, and King’s Health Partners, is to help create a global centre of expertise for MedTech at St Thomas’ and Royal Street. The MedTech “hub” will form part of the wider SC1 Life Science and Innovation District and help to build on London’s strength in this key growth sector. SC1 aims to transform healthcare by developing a world-class community in south central London dedicated to pioneering health innovation.

MedTech involves applying technology to medical problems. Whether this means finding new technology to help diagnose illnesses more quickly or incorporating technology in treatment, at home or in hospitals, MedTech is about finding 21st century solutions to healthcare problems. For example, this might mean the development of new devices and equipment, such as smart pacemakers/inhalers, 3D printing or robotics, or using Artificial Intelligence to improve digital health applications.

Royal Street and SC1 will build on the existing, globally significant MedTech successes of St Thomas’ and King’s. The London Institute of Healthcare Engineering is under construction on Lambeth Palace Road and will provide space for medical professionals and researchers to work with healthcare companies to develop pioneering new treatments through new start up companies. Royal Street will provide the spaces for these companies to expand, encouraging them to stay in Lambeth and create new job opportunities.

In addition, Canterbury House is home to the Health Foundry, a collaborative workspace with over 80 health technology companies as members. We are working with the Health Foundry with the aim that they remain at Royal Street and move into larger premises in the new buildings.

The creation of a MedTech hub at Royal Street will help ensure the continued improvement of healthcare provision in south London and beyond.

Both Oasis Farm and Old Paradise Yard are “meanwhile uses” – which means a temporary use on a vacant site, which is earmarked for development – and they were introduced by the Foundation because the site was underused and attracting anti-social behaviour.

While always intended to be temporary uses, we absolutely recognise the success of both the Farm and Old Paradise Yard, and the value of having flexible workspaces available in Central London. That’s why we will be delivering a substantial amount of affordable workspace as part of the new scheme, which will allow many more businesses to grow and thrive. 

Small businesses who were based at Old Paradise Yard during the meanwhile use will be a priority group for the new affordable workspace created at Royal Street.

The proposed buildings will not shade Archbishop’s Park. We are building on the northern edge of the park which means, given the movement of the sun from east to west there will be no loss of sun in the Park as a result of our proposals.

The new buildings will be set back from the northern edge of the Park to give space for the tree roots and canopy and in doing so will create a new open space – Archbishop’s Walk, which will provide a new pedestrian route between Lambeth Palace Road and Carlisle Lane with children’s play space, cafés, planting, and new railings to the edge of the park.

We consulted extensively on proposals to develop the Royal Street site over a number of years, starting in May 2018 when we first decided to bring forward the site for a MedTech / Life Sciences use.

The proposals we have submitted were shaped and influenced by a comprehensive community and stakeholder engagement programme which, between September 2021 and January 2022, saw us:

• Contact over 30 local community groups and organisations to invite them to take part in the consultation process and we held meetings with 25 of these groups;
• Deliver two newsletters to just under 2,000 local addresses around the site informing them about the plans and the consultations we were running;
• Advertise the consultation events through social media and local adverts;
• Hold two series of consultation events in October and December 2021, including in-person events and online webinars, where we welcomed just under 60 people to help them find out more information about the plans.

Of the six buildings proposed in the scheme, two will be constructed using the original structures. Our proposals include the retention of Becket House, which will be repurposed as part of the new Innovation District. We took this decision precisely so that we could reduce the carbon footprint of this development. We will also create new office space in the existing railway viaduct structure, which is currently used as a car park. 

Land in Central London, close to excellent transport links, is a finite resource, and we need to make the most efficient use of it – for homes, workspace, public spaces, and community uses. Developments like Royal Street, in the heart of a major city, encourage a more sustainable lifestyle than similar developments in suburban or out -of-town locations where people rely much more on cars for travel.

We also carefully considered with expert sustainability consultants how we might retain and reuse Stangate and Canterbury House. However, their dimensions, specifications, massing, and location on the site mean they unfortunately cannot be converted for use as effective workplaces. Where possible, we will be reusing and recycling materials from the demolished buildings.

We believe that the Old Paradise Yard site can deliver much more for the community through redevelopment – many more jobs, Affordable Workspace, modern flexible workspaces suitable for life sciences, and more public open space.

The proposals will deliver 9,000 sqm of Affordable Workspace, considerably more than the 1,400 sqm of that is provided at the Old Paradise Yard meanwhile use, which was previously let at market rents.

We have committed that small businesses previously based at Old Paradise Yard will be a priority group in the allocation of the new space once Royal Street has been delivered.

Increasingly, the Foundation is looking for all its assets – including Royal Street – to deliver both financial returns that can contribute to its charitable work and health impact in and of themselves. 

The existing buildings on the site are getting old and deteriorating and likely to reduce in value in future years. The Foundation has the opportunity to replace the existing buildings and create more value on the site – for local communities and for its partners, including the NHS Trust.

It is vital the Foundation maximises returns to its endowment through the redevelopment of Royal Street, however, the Foundation is also balancing how to achieve this whilst supporting its principal beneficiary Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and its commitment to building the foundations of a healthier society. The Foundation is working with Stanhope to develop a best-in-class scheme to promote health and wellbeing in the built environment.

Stanhope provides real estate development services across the United Kingdom. The company’s development portfolio includes cultural, office, retail, residential, and mixed-use properties. Over the last 30 years Stanhope has created and reinvented some of the most recognisable buildings in London and beyond. Recent projects have included:

White City Place:

Located in West London, this project created a new centre for the creative and technology sectors, hosting over 3000 staff from the BBC, and research and teaching facilities for the Royal College of Art, the digital fashion house YOOX Net a Porter, creative co-working Huckletree, ITV Studios and biotech companies Synthace, Autolus, Novartis and Gamma Delta.

Tate Modern:

Located on the South Bank, the Tate Modern is one of London’s most renowned cultural institutions. Opening in 2000, in a discontinued power station, it continues to attract millions of visitors each year, helping bring contemporary art to a wider audience. Stanhope has been involved throughout the evolution of the site, from helping to secure the Tate’s home in the 1990s, to assisting with the recent works to expand the gallery in 2016.

Television Centre:

The home of the BBC for over 50 years, the site of many of the nation’s TV memories and a historic Grade II listed building which required a sensitive approach to redevelopment. The project has injected a new lease of life into the area with a creative mix of uses that look to the future whilst also protecting the building’s original function as a home for British broadcasting.

The Treasury:

The 1.2m sq. ft. redevelopment of HM Treasury building by St James’s Park involved the creation of a new open place office environment, as well as the sensitive restoration of Winston Churchill’s underground wartime Cabinet Rooms, trebling the current museum’s size and opening up parts of the nerve centre of military planning, during World War II, to the public for the first time.

Becket House currently operates as an office building. Purpose-built office buildings require taller floor-to-ceiling height than residential buildings so the floors of this building appear taller than the residential buildings on site.

Our proposals will deliver 133 new homes, including 50% affordable housing. There are currently 129 homes on the site, all for private rent with no affordable provision.

Yes, at the heart of our proposals is a commitment to creating and curating spaces which enhance the health and wellbeing of those who use them. We want Royal Street to be a pleasant, green, safe, and inclusive environment for anyone to spend time in. These proposed green spaces include:

• A new large green space overlooking Archbishop’s Park, providing a new pedestrian route from Lambeth Palace Road to Carlisle Lane
• Children’s play space within a private garden and a new pedestrian route south from Royal Street
• A new pedestrian route along the railway between Upper Marsh and Carlisle Lane, activated by shops and cafes and part of Lambeth’s Low Line Project
• A new landscaped space at the centre of the site, where Upper Marsh meets Royal Street, with places to sit and relax, with the potential for new cafes and restaurants
• Improvements to Royal Street for pedestrians and cyclists with fewer parked cars, wider pavements, and terraces and porches to provide shelter from the rain
• Improvements to Upper Marsh with a more defined cycle route between Lower Marsh and Lambeth Palace Road, new lighting, cleaned brickwork, and windows looking into the tunnel spaces to improve safety.

The existing public realm space is 5,534 sqm, with our proposed plans including 7,823sqm of public realm.

There are 73 existing trees on the site and our proposals will provide a total of 95 trees. This will be a combination of retained (14) and planted (81) trees.

Whilst our proposals do require the removal of c. 60 trees, the overwhelming majority of these are Category C or Category U trees, meaning they are not of good quality. All of these will be replaced with new trees meaning there will be no overall net loss of trees on site. The project will also fund a tree planting programme across Lambeth to compensate for any loss of tree canopy resulting from replacing existing trees with new trees.

No, none of the existing buildings within the site are listed.

We are aware that there are some buildings of merit and understand that people may feel a connection to buildings like the Holy Trinity Centre as local landmarks, however we feel that our plans will provide a greater benefit to the local area than the existing buildings currently provide. This includes providing better connectivity, creating an open and welcoming place which is also a sustainable development that promotes health and wellbeing.

We think the overall benefits accrued from our development will outweigh the harm after removal of the buildings.

We have followed Historic England’s process for reviewing the Old Paradise Yard buildings’ historic value, and this process concluded that the existing buildings should not be listed.

As is usual with planning permissions, there are a number of conditions to be discharged before works can begin on site. These include detailed design and procurement for the first buildings and statutory consents, including those related to working next to the railway, amongst others.

We must work through the early conditions to be discharged before we can begin the process of appointing a contractor.

At this stage, we cannot be sure exactly how long it will take to discharge those conditions, but we are working hard to get this done so we can move into the delivery stage sooner rather than later.

The first phase covers the land between Royal Street and Archbishop’s Park. This includes a new residential building (Plot B), a commercial building (Plot A), and green spaces like the new Archbishop’s Walk, entrances to Archbishop’s Park, and a residential shared garden.

We need to procure a construction partner before we can provide a specific programme for the works because they will develop the build methodology and programme as part of their work. As soon as we have this programme in place, we can give more detail – and we will keep the community informed of the progress on site throughout the build.