Hostile, impermeable and unsustainable: Puddle Dock in the City of London is the antithesis of everything development strives to deliver today.
From the intrusive slip road to the gloomy post-war warren of hidden walkways, concealed entrances, covered roads and inefficient, underused offices, regeneration is long overdue in this corner of the Square Mile.
Right place, right time
The complex site sits on a prime spot, beside the River Thames, next to Blackfriars Station, EC4, and a stone’s throw from St Paul’s.
Hostile, impermeable and unsustainable: Puddle Dock in the City of London is the antithesis of everything development strives to deliver today.
From the intrusive slip road to the gloomy post-war warren of hidden walkways, concealed entrances, covered roads and inefficient, underused offices, regeneration is long overdue in this corner of the Square Mile.
Right place, right time
The complex site sits on a prime spot, beside the River Thames, next to Blackfriars Station, EC4, and a stone’s throw from St Paul’s.
Kathrin Hersel, executive director at Almacantar, describes it as “the last big block in the City where there is an opportunity to fundamentally change and improve it”. “It requires all landowners to come together to do something,” Hersel says. “Otherwise, nothing will happen.”
The last major attempt to do something on part of the site was more than a decade ago, with Malory Clifford’s Blackfriars Developments winning consent for a Will Alsop-designed hotel on the site of the Mermaid Conference Centre in 2010. However, the scheme was never built.
Almacantar has been biding its time since quietly buying a key interest elsewhere on the site in an off-market deal from Brookfield in 2013.
But having completed Marble Arch Place, overlooking Hyde Park, it is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to create a new City quarter. Almacantar is partnering with Network Rail on the regeneration, in consultation with City of London officers and key local stakeholders.
“This feels like the right time for this type of site,” Hersel says. “There has been so much change – partly brought about by Covid – in how the industry thinks about masterplanning and about offices. In a way I am glad we haven’t moved ahead with it before now.”
The transformation would be on a par with that of the Southbank Place estate close to Waterloo Station, SE1, where Almacantar owns the fully let One and Two Southbank Place office blocks – the first to Shell and the second to WeWork.
The initial proposals for Puddle Dock are for a 1.4 m sq ft office-led scheme to transform an under-utilised and traffic-dominated district into a new quarter of sustainable buildings. This would be up from around 740,000 sq ft of space currently on the site.
The majority of the proposed scheme – some 900,000 sq ft – would be offices and 100,000 sq ft would be shops and restaurants. The initial proposals – drawn up by Bennetts Associates – are for nine buildings across the site.
“There will not be huge floorplates. The office buildings will be more bespoke, more personal. People will still need head offices,” Hersel says, adding that the likely target would be professional service firms and fintech companies.
The offices will be peppered with gallery and event spaces, green terraces and roof gardens. “Offices are competing with working from home, so they need to bring something else to your working life,” Hersel says.
The scheme will target net-zero operational carbon, BREEAM Outstanding, a five-star NABERS rating, the LETI Net Zero Carbon Trajectory and a WELL Platinum rating.
The plans include a 49,000 sq ft public roof garden with a café with capacity for up to 1,000 people. This is intended to chime with the “Wow”, the “Wonder” and the “Welcome” ambitions of the City’s Destination City strategy by creating a seven-day-a-week destination for residents, workers and visitors. The Mermaid conference centre would go, but a new, public gallery would be created leading to the roof garden.
Opening up the riverfront
At ground level, the scheme would open up the river frontage to provide a much-improved pedestrian section of the north bank of the Thames. Crucially, the plans include the removal of the White Lion Hill slip road, which cuts into the site, to open up 200m of active riverfront.
The new frontage will be fully pedestrianised with three new buildings framing a new public space and generous public realm.
The promenade will link into the Embankment and Thames Tideway development to the west and Millennium Bridge to the east.
A new entrance into Blackfriars Station is proposed to connect directly into Upper Thames Street and bring people directly into the heart of the site, turning the street into a new route to the City.
Hersel says the river-fronting buildings would use the latest approaches in timber construction. Meanwhile, some 40% of the existing structures would be retained to reduce the embodied carbon involved in redeveloping the site.
Most of the site is freehold owned by the City of London, which is understood to be supportive of the proposals. The area is allocated within existing and emerging policy as a Key Area of Change within the City of London.
Network Rail is also a freeholder.
“As a major landowner and long-term investor, we have a unique ability to create long-term partnerships to unlock these opportunities around vital transport infrastructure,” says Robin Dobson, Network Rail’s group property director.
“The combination of development and infrastructure expertise creates real value to complex schemes, helping to deliver improved neighbourhoods for communities and customers and, in the case of Puddle Dock, being a catalyst for driving wider economic growth for the capital.”
Varied stakeholders
The existing site is made up of three main components: One Puddle Dock, which is occupied by Network Rail; Two Puddle Dock, which is occupied by flexible/serviced offices and the Mermaid conference and events centre; and Baynard House, an office and telephone exchange building now only partially occupied by BT.
Almacantar bought One Puddle Dock in the 2013 deal with Brookfield. The latter is a part freehold and part leasehold interest and was part of the Hammerson office portfolio bought by Brookfield. BT Telereal has a long leasehold interest, while private investor Grovendale owns the long leasehold of Two Puddle Dock and operates the conference and events centre.
Another key stakeholder will be the adjacent City of London School, given that the site comprises accommodation for the school and sports pitches. It also includes the City Gardens Depot and the Baynard House car Park.
The site is bounded by Queen Victoria Street to the north, the White Lion Hill slip road to the east, Blackfriars Station to the west and the River Thames to the south, with St Benet Paul’s Wharf Church located just beyond the slip road. The proposals include a new pocket park beside the Grade I listed church.
Dan Bayley, director in central London tenant representation at JLL, says: “Few parts of the City are well connected to the riverfront, so this could be a great opportunity to do something exemplar on that front.
“There are lots of stakeholders here, and that includes operational railways and Underground lines, so it may not be easy to execute. A true mix of different uses is likely to be needed to create the right mix and also to be fundable.”
Bennetts Associates has been appointed as masterplanner and Gerald Eve is advising on the development proposals. Consultation began earlier this month, with further sessions planned for autumn. A planning application would then follow next spring or summer and Hersel says the scheme could be on site in 2028/9.
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