Coming up in the next issue of dbrief Quarterly

August - November 2010

Get your copy of dbrief Monthly by email atwww.betterbankside.co.uk/development

In this Issue

Integrated Design – Transforming Tate Modern

Landmark landscape at Blackfriars station

An orchard in the forest on Union Street

Meet the People – a view from Great Suffolk Street

Plus

Map of what’s where and who’s doing it

Disclaimer: Responsibility for the accuracy of information published in dbrief lies with the individual contractors, developers and other companies who supply the information. For further information, please see the contact details given for each development. Edited by placeworks.co.uk. Design by mediamixer.co.uk

Better Bankside 020 7928 3998www.betterbankside.co.uk

Southwark Council 020 7525 5450www.southwark.gov.uk/londonbridgedevelopment

Team London Bridge 020 7407 4701www.teamlondonbridge.co.uk

Meet the people behind the schemesA view from Great Suffolk Street

Pickles Café, like Frank’s on Southwark Street, has been a bit of a Bankside institution for years. Ellen and Remo took over 12 years ago, but Ellen thinks that the café has been there nearer to 50. Before that it was an oil shop, selling soap, paraffin, brooms etc. Ellen has seen a photograph of a lady in a long skirt standing on the pavement outside.

Inside, today, the walls are covered with calendars and posters of Marilyn Monroe, Ellen’s favourite, and a board displaying fading pictures of customers over the years. A few celebrities have found their way here too on occasion, including Gilbert and George (“immaculately dressed”), Richard Branson, Michelle Collins and “the tall one off Dragon’s Den”.

Costa, of the coffee chain fame, learned his trade as an apprentice with Remo at a café in Waterloo, many years ago.

Ellen still gets up at half past two as the boiler has to go on by ten past 4. “If it’s a quarter past we’re running late”, she says, though there are fewer early regulars these days. One, she indicates his seat at the table next to us, drives in from Kent every day and breakfasts here at ten past 6, even when he’s working up in Knightsbridge.

By 9am, when we are talking, the hi-vis-clad construction workers have been replaced by shirt-sleeved office workers. Trade has been hit by the arrival of the newer chains. I wonder whether the student housing opposite will be good for business but she notes that there will be a Tesco Express in the shops below. “What we really need round here is a Boots the Chemist.”

Ellen hadn’t heard about Bankside Urban Forest but brightens at the thought that Great Suffolk Street may be in line for some improvements. “Whenever it rains there’s always a huge puddle outside, isn’t there?” she turns to a passing regular to corroborate what she’s saying.

What does she put their success down to, over all these years? “We’re old and cheap”, she laughs, “have you seen the price list?! That and the gift of the gab”. When Ken Livingstone came in once, soon after the Congestion Charge was introduced, she advised him not to sit with his back to the door. That’s the sort of customer care you don’t find everywhere these days.

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Keeping you informed of developments on Banksideand London Bridge

160 Tooley Street Southwark Council 20097 More London More London Development 2009-2010America Street Arches Idea CompetitionBankside Urban Forest/TP Bennett Bankside Mix Land Securities 2009Bear Lane Development Galliard Homes/Panter Hudspith 2009 Bermondsey Street Bridge Light at the End of the Tunnel 2009Blackfriars Railway Bridge and Stations Thameslink Programme 2009-2011 Borough Market / Viaduct Thameslink Programme 2009-2012

DemolitionsThameslink Programme 2009-2010 Flat Iron Square Bankside Urban Forest Shakespeare’s Globe Sackler Studios Shakespeare’s Globe 2009-2010Great Guildford StreetBankside Urban Forest Guys Tower Refurbishment Penoyre & Prasad 2009-2013 London Bridge Place Sellar Property Group 2009-2014 London Bridge Bus Station Network Rail 2010-2012 London Bridge Station Network Rail 2012-2015

Mains replacementThames Water Melior Street Garden Pocket PlazaTeam London BridgeNEO Bankside Native Land/Grosvenor 2009-2012Red Cross Way redesignBankside Urban Forest Shard London Bridge Sellar Property Group 2009-2012 Shipwright Yard Pocket PlazaTeam London Bridge Snowfields pavement widening Team London Bridge Student housing/office/retailAllies & Morrison/UNITE 2009-2010

Transforming Tate Modern Transforming Tate Modern 2009-2012The Greenhouse SE1Association of Ideas/Dolben Group LLPPickles CafeMeet the people behind the schemes Union Street Urban OrchardBankside Urban Forest and othersJellyfish TheatreBankside Urban Forest and others

Bankside and London Bridge are being transformed. New buildings will bring new settings, and these landscapes are both an integral part of the way we experience a place and an exceptional opportunity to stitch the new developments into the wider neighbourhood.

Welcome to dbrief Quarterly issue 5

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DevelopmentsInfrastructure improvementIn this issue

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Overall, more than 15 development schemes representing £4bn of investment will generate 4,500 construction jobs and 15,000 permanent jobs.

dbrief Quarterly is a unique collaboration by these ground-breaking schemes, working together with Southwark Council and Business Improvement Districts Better Bankside and Team London Bridge, to bring you the stories behind – and around – the developments.

In this issue we take a look at how, sensitively and imaginatively designed, these individual projects can grow into a network of spaces and streets reaching out into the wider neighbourhood.

A new north-south route through Tate Modern will help to strengthen the connections between the river and the heart of Bankside, and Tate’s landscape architects are exploring ways to create a public realm that will flow into surrounding areas.

The south entrance of nearby Blackfriars Station will also feature new landscaping and a piece of

public art, another opportunity for developers and designers to collaborate creatively for the goodof the area.

The strategy to coordinate an overall vision for the area, to encourage investment and imaginative, high-quality improvements is Bankside Urban Forest. It aims to stitch together the new schemes that are mostly towards the river with new and existing projects further south. You might have taken part in some of the recent London Festival of Architecture activities when Bankside Urban Forest was one of its three main hubs – with

projects such as the Union Street Urban Orchard and the Jellyfish Theatre further along the street demonstrating the opportunities that new spaces can bring to the neighbourhood. Bankside developments, in particular NEO Bankside, helped bring these projects to life by donating valuable man hours and materials.

Finally, we meet Ellen whose café is a rather longer-established feature of Great Suffolk Street, itself an important route in the Bankside Urban Forest.

Photos above: Millenium Bridge, Strata SE1, Guys Tower, Guerilla Lighting at the Hop Exchange

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Integrated Design – Transforming Tate Modern Transforming Tate Modern is a pivotal scheme in the new developments on Bankside. Not only will it bring a landmark building set in a beautiful landscape, but it will open up a new route across this part of London, linking the City and the north bank of the Thames to the heart of Bankside.

Architects Herzog & de Meuron have planned a new walkway from the river front through the existing building, a ‘ceremonial boulevard’ which will wind through the new building with small landings and enclaves for resting points. The route will integrate both buildings bringing Tate and the riverside closer to the neighbourhoods to the south, encouraging more exploration into the borough.

The new landscape will also play its part in making these connections. Vogt Landscape Architects’ scheme creates a series of pathway connections from the new extension through the southern and eastern landscapes, connecting the project with Sumner and Great Guilford Streets. Great Guildford Street has been identified as a key north-south route, or

‘Stream’ in the Bankside Urban Forest – a meandering, relatively quiet street which itself connects Bankside southwards to Elephant and Castle.

Vogt’s work also shows how making connections through good communication can be key to achieving a creative outcome. Following consultation with residents at Falcon Point and Bankside Lofts as well as on-going coordination with Southwark Council, Better Bankside, NEO Bankside, EDFE and the Great Guildford Street developments, Vogt are looking beyond the boundaries of the site to see

how designing a common palette of shared materials and surfaces could knit these areas together.

With schemes and designers working together, this joined-up approach can create a new public realm that is aesthetically pleasing and functional – and an integral part of the wider landscape.

As part of Open House (18 & 19th Sept 10-4pm) local residents are invited to come and visit the development site that will transform Tate Modern. From a specially created viewing platform, the three oil tanks, to be at the foundation of the new building, will be visible offering a unique setting for future artists’ installations and performances. For more information about Transforming Tate Modern visit www.tate.org.uk/modern/transformingtm; see the live video feed of the site or visit the interactive in-gallery display (Level 1, opposite the cloakroom, Tate Modern).

If you’re living within walking distance of Tate Modern in the Bankside area, then why not become a free Friend of the Community Garden? To find out more visit www.tate.org.uk/modern/building/garden or email community@tate.org.uk

Team London Bridge - a BID for RenewalWith so many developments underway and planned for the future, it is important that our area has agencies who are able to communicate the latest construction news and ensure that less loved pockets of our streetscape don’t get ignored and left behind. (See Map 18,22,23)

Our local Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) do this and much more. One of these, Team London Bridge, comes to the end of it’s original five year term in early 2011, so businesses in the London Bridge BID area must decide and vote between 1st Oct and 4th Nov 2010 as to whether they want to continue being part of a BID for another five years.

If a majority ‘yes’ vote is returned it will mean that the extra policing, additional street cleaning, business and event promotion, street improvements and community group funding that Team London Bridge provide will continue and a potential £5m will be invested into our area.

If your business is within the London Bridge BID area, contact Team London Bridge to make sure you are registered to vote and find out more about their plans for the future.

Call Georgina Dawkins 020 7407 4701 Email info@teamlondonbridge.co.uk Visit www.teamlondonbridge.co.uk

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Have your say on the SPD Further consultation announced.

If you have yet to comment on the new Bankside, Borough and London Bridge Supplementary Planning guidance (SPD) you can do so from 3 September to 15 October. Go to www.southwark.gov.uk/bblspd or see the documents at Southwark Libraries and one-stop shops. Call the planning policy team on 020 7525 5471 or email planningpolicy@southwark.gov.uk

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Landmark landscape at Blackfriars stationThe south station entrance of Network Rail’s landmark redevelopment of Blackfriars station will also include a new landscaping scheme. At its heart a piece of public art will bring new life to stone saved from the demolished pier.

The landscaping scheme, to the east of the south entrance on the Thames Path and behind the Founders Arms Public House, is being designed by Jacobs.

The landscaping responds to the Bankside Urban Forest initiative by working closely with design teams involved with neighbouring developments. The aim is to use a common palette of materials to help visitors recognise and navigate their way around Bankside.

One important element is the inclusion of space for a piece of public art, such as a statute, which Network Rail hopes will reflect the cultural significance of the area. A quantity of black granite, recycled from the recent demolition of the pier end during the station redevelopment, has already been put aside. The rail company expects that this black granite will be used to create the statue.

Nathan Quigley, Communications Manager for Network Rail, explains: “In the coming months we will be meeting with a number of businesses in the area to discuss and agree its theme. One theme that has already been raised by Network Rail and met with real enthusiasm by local businesses is a modern interpretation of William Shakespeare. This would further pay tribute to the bard’s historical association with the local area.” For further information about the Blackfriars station redevelopment, please contact the Network Rail 24 hour helpline on 08457 11 41 41 or visit: www.networkrail.co.uk

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An orchard in the forest on Union StreetWhat would you do with 250 pallets, 100 recycled tyres, and an empty site in the heart of Bankside? The Architecture Foundation in collaboration with Heather Ring of the Wayward Plant Registry designed an Urban Orchard, which is now growing beneath the railway line at 100 Union Street.

The Urban Orchard opened on 19 June and will close on 19 September – just one fruit harvest. Yet this temporary intervention has fired the imaginations of visitors and volunteers alike, not to mention the many Bankside organisations from the Architecture Foundation and Bankside Open Spaces Trust to Better Bankside and Southwark Council, who collaborated in its creation.

Like the Jellyfish Theatre further along Union Street, the Urban Orchard is just the sort of project that demonstrates the vision of Bankside Urban Forest – bringing together a creative mix of recycling, regeneration and recreation to build a high quality landmark out of seemingly nothing, while changing everyone’s perceptions of the possibilities for these unused sites.

One of the biggest sponsors of the project was Carillion, the building contractors on the NEO Bankside scheme. Construction Manager Gary Stent coordinated a supply of the orchard’s building blocks – disused pallets – as well as providing essential man hours for construction on both the Union Street projects.

In September the garden will be dismantled and all the trees will be given to local estates and other community gardens to remain as a lasting legacy of the 2010 London Festival of Architecture. But who knows what the longer-term legacy of this fruitful partnership might be. For more information please visitwww.unionstreetorchard.org.uk and www.betterbankside.co.uk/bankside-urban-forest

Coming up in the next issues We will look at transport in Bankside and London Bridge. Several of the new schemes will vastly improve the travel connections into and out of the area – from Network Rail’s station developments at Blackfriars and Borough Viaduct to a new bus station at London Bridge and the Barclays Cycle Superhighway.

If you have any topics you would like us to explore in future issues of dbrief Quarterly, please email us at: info@betterbankside.co.uk

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