Southwark development gains planning permission

Admin

March 13, 2025
2 min read

Southwark development gains planning permission

A joint venture between Places for London, TfL’s property company, and developer Helical has won planning permission for a Southwark development. The proposal will be a 15-storey, purpose-built student accommodation scheme (PBSA) with 429 studio apartments, and an adjacent nine storey building with 44 affordable homes. The building will be built above Southwark Tube station.

Designed by architects AHMM, the Southwark development will feature a new Bauhaus-inspired block to house the PBSA element. This will give students a “best in class experience” in what is “one of London’s best-connected Zone 1 locations,” according to TfL. With a number of universities within a short journey from the tube station, the new Southwark development promises to help alleviate the demand on the private rental market in the area.

The joint venture targets a “4.5-star Home Quality Mark” for the scheme’s affordable housing provision. It will also offer new retail space and community space. This will include a shared community garden, as well as improvements to the public realm through an increase in the amount of greenery and provision of active frontages on the Cut and Isabella Street.

Future residents of the development will benefit from easy and fast public transport connections across the capital with London Bridge and Waterloo within walking distance. Being in zone 1, the development sits within “some of the best of what city has to offer” including theatres, restaurants and more on its doorstep.

This is the one of three initial sites that Places for London and Helical are delivering as part of the Platinum Portfolio joint venture.

A 140,000 sq ft office building at 10 King William Street is underway, due for completion in December 2026 in a “supply constrained market” in the heart of the City. Another office development of 235,000 sq ft at Paddington is progressing and due to start early next year.

The proposals form part of Places for London’s wider housing programme, which hopes to provide thousands of homes across the capital. Work has started on Places for London sites across London that will deliver 4,300 homes, and more than 1,300 homes have been completed, of which 54 per cent are affordable homes.

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