Paris Garden redevelopment plans bloom with Southwark nod

Southwark Council has approved plans to redevelop a vacant office block at Paris Garden, SE1. Plans from Overcourt, the privately owned investment company of the Faherty family, will see 4-5 Paris Garden and 18-19 Hatfields redeveloped as a new circa 150,000 sq ft office scheme.  The TateHindle-designed scheme, which will see parts of Paris Garden retained and refurbished, will increase the office space within the development by around 60,000 sq ft. 4-5 Paris Garden was built in the early 1930s as an extension to the former printworks at 1-3 Paris Garden. It has five-storeys plus a lower-ground floor. 18-19 Hatfields was built around the turn of the 20th century and has four storeys plus a lower-ground floor. The developer said the increased amount of employment floorspace, including on-site affordable workspace, would be designed to meet “modern occupier demand for high-quality, flexible office accommodation”. It added that the development of a new single commercial office building would act as “a catalyst for the future regeneration of the wider estate” and that the plans echoed its printworks heritage, while providing a new publicly accessible courtyard and improved links to local green infrastructure assets. Nick Brindley, planning partner at Gerald Eve, which advised on planning, said: “The scheme before committee yesterday evening was designed by TateHindle to reflect the urban grain and character of the existing warehouses in the area.  “In addition, rather than complete demolition, as previously proposed, the scheme looked to retain and extend 4-5 Paris Garden while proposing the redevelopment of 18-19 Hatfields, reducing the upfront carbon emissions. Overall, the scheme proposed a total of over 14,500 sq m of new office space provided within a unified single building, with heights of up to 11 storeys. Circa 500 sq m of affordable workspace was provided at a discount market rent for a 30-year period at ground-floor level.” Previous KPF-designed plans, drawn up in 2017, had proposed a 24-storey office block on the site. Images © TateHindle