Empire Square

Character

This major intervention is in a part of Southwark of great antiquity, which has been constantly developed and redeveloped so that it now features great diversity of use, and varied, often nondescript, architectural character.

Adjacent to the project are two-storey terraced houses as well as the skyscraper tower of Guy's Hospital. On Tabard Street, Empire Square West carefully surrounds and conserves an existing, mainly nineteenth century, four-storey terrace of diverse uses - cafes, wood turners, and copy shops. The eight storeys taken as the predominant height for the new development approximates to the rooflines of the surrounding five or six storey council housing estates, enabling the scheme to fit comfortably into the existing street scene.

The tower of private apartments rising to twenty three storeys seems from most viewpoints to emerge from a plinth of lower buildings. The floor plan is reduced in size from the fifteenth storey to give a less bulky and more elegant silhouette and provide roof terraces with spectacular views. A beacon which changes colour according to barometric pressure has been installed at the top of the tower.

The garden has been planted with semi mature ash trees, and the small but dramatically sculptural, free standing building located off centre, whose curved rendered block walls, sweeping roof and low corner tower are reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp chapel, will accommodate a bar and restaurant.

Roads, Parking and Pedestrianisation

New pedestrian routes crossing the internal garden from the corners of the triangular block are open to the public between 6am and11pm, being closed at night by decorative galvanised steel gates. Although the garden cannot therefore be considered completely public, this is acceptable in a busy inner city context since it provides a degree of night time tranquillity for residents, and is also in character with similar spaces in the locality – for example St. George the Martyr’s churchyard, which is also closed at night.

These new internal routes are used to some extent but duplicate surrounding streets and do not currently have any important use opening onto them. This may change when the supermarket and the restaurant/bar building in the garden are operational – although whether a space of this size needs a separate building within it is questionable. Traditionally spaces acquire vitality from uses at their edges, and siting the restaurant on one edge might have contributed more to animating the space. The nursery’s large windows and glazed doors face onto the garden but no space is allocated for children’s use here, since it would require permanent fencing and this was not possible.

All car parking is underground with no provision for residents’ vehicles in surrounding streets. Access to basement parking is via a Tabard Street entrance and exit which also serves as a limited service entrance by allowing high vehicles to enter some way into the basement. This is ventilated by impulse fans exhausting at ground level through a series of sculptural vents that repeat the themes of the security gates.

A service bay was provided for the size of supermarket allocated but since Southwark Council refused basement parking for customers, a facility deemed necessary by the retailer taking up the space, the store's size was reduced and it will therefore be serviced from the street.

Design and construction

Reinforced concrete columns with post-tensioned concrete slabs have been used throughout, avoiding bulky edge beams and permitting the use of large floor-to-ceiling windows with dry infill panels or curtain walling on the tower.

Street elevations are generally finished with facing bricks, responding to the local context, otherwise all buildings are finished in white render or white textured aluminium cladding, the high reflectivity of which contributes to the light and airy feel of the interior garden.

Both affordable and market housing feature a wide variety of flat and maisonette layouts, and identical external finishes have been used for all types of tenure making them impossible to identify externally although some affordable unit have bigger balconies than some market units.

The difficulty of ensuring privacy for housing at ground level has been resolved on the garden elevation at Empire Square South by slightly raising the ground floor and providing a hedge as a barrier in front of the dwellings. Sterry Street has small spaces with railings at ground level, although inexplicably Southwark Council has not allowed this arrangement to be extended into the connecting Southall Place.

Commendably, each ground floor affordable unit in these two streets has its front door on the street, ensuring increased surveillance of this popular route to London Bridge station. Upper floors of the block have access from internal corridors. With no gas in the development, all heating is electric, either in the floor or with wall -mounted panels, and certain private flats are provided with air conditioning. This form of provision would not meet current regulations.

Environment and community

In addition to the scheme’s facilities - a small supermarket, nursery and eventually a restaurant, bar and gymnasium - a wide range of shops, cafes and community facilities including primary school and library is located within five minutes walk of Empire Square, and special uses such as the adjacent London College of Accountancy help animate the area during the day.

Two underground stations and a main line station at London Bridge are within ten minutes' walk. The two new gardens feature mature trees and landscaping, and will create a wildlife-friendly habitat with nesting/habitat boxes for birds and insects.