U+I, a property developer and investor focused on regeneration, has submitted plans for a £770m mixed-use project, Morden Wharf, on Greenwich Peninsula, London. Morden Wharf comprises residential buildings, as well as commercial, retail and community spaces.
The plans have been submitted to the Royal Borough of Greenwich for approval following extensive consultation with the local community and key stakeholders.
The mixed-use project on Greenwich Peninsula will deliver around 1,500 new homes, hundreds of new jobs and more than six acres of high-quality public realm and a landscaped park along 275m of the River Thames.
”The approximately 1,500 homes, of which 35% will be affordable, will include a mix of private sale, shared ownership and London Affordable Rent, which in particular will have a focus on family homes,” said U+I in the statement.
The scheme will also deliver a mix of commercial and employment uses that will create around 1,100 new permanent jobs. This includes commercial, retail and community use, including smaller flexible spaces for SMEs and creative businesses. Echoing its rich history as a place of industry, a series of maker spaces and light industrial units will sit on the part of the site designated as Strategic Industrial Land. Over 2,400 construction jobs will also be generated over the course of the development programme.
The plans also include a new permanent boat house on an existing jetty, designed by architects Carmody Groarke. The boathouse could provide a permanent mooring for Gloriana, the Monarch’s Royal Rowbarge, which was expertly crafted to mark Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
Morden Wharf, designed by acclaimed Dutch architecture firm OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), is located in the South Western corner of the Greenwich Peninsula around 15 minutes walking distance from North Greenwich Station on the Jubilee Line. Upon completion of the Silvertown Tunnel, Tunnel Avenue, which runs along the Eastern edge of the site, will become two-way which could allow for a new bus service that runs between Morden Wharf and North Greenwich Station.
“Morden Wharf will bring together new homes, retail, leisure, employment and an extensive riverfront park, to create a diverse community rooted in the site’s heritage. Centred on a beautiful park and world-class public realm this scheme is set to transform the area into a distinctive, green, mixed-use development, while driving growth and employment and delivering 1,500 much-needed new homes,” said Richard Upton, Chief Development Officer, U+I.
“Morden Wharf is designed to foster community and has the right mix of uses to create a successful and vibrant neighbourhood, all stitched together with beautiful public realm. We have drawn design inspiration from Greenwich Peninsula’s industrial heritage – from the warehouses and silos that once sat on the site, to the iron lattice structure of the gasholders. We have also looked back further, to the original marshland landscape of the peninsula, and in creating the park and public realms we are seeking to return the post-industrial landscape to a more natural and ecologically diverse condition,” commented Reinier de Graaf, Partner in charge of the project, OMA.
